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GEO. W. DARBY 



INCIDENTS AND ADVENTURES 



. I^T . 



REBELDOM 



<t\ ti\ >>\ >>\ n\ f^\ n\ ffi 



LIBBY, BELLE-ISLE, SALISBURY. 



By QEO. W. darby. 



drawings by j. w. hawsthorne. 

Press of Rawsthorne Enghavng & Printing Company, 

PITTSBURG, PA., 1899. 



61051 

DEDICATION. 

To all soldiers who defended the Union from "sixty- 
one" to ''sixty-five" when "The bloody hand of Treason 
sought its overthrow." To the memory of the noble dead 
on many bloody fields and to those heroic martyrs who "Suf- 
fered death before dishonor" in the prison hells of the South, 
this work is respectfullv inscribed by the author. 

TWO COPIES RECEIVED. 



SECOND COPY, 



/y^y^ 



PREFACE. 

As the events herein narrated are true and veracious 
facts no apology or excuse is necessary for their publication. 
Let the work be judged according to its merits or demerits. 
I believe that the criticism on McClelland's conduct is fully 
justified bv the evidence produced. Enthusiastic and un- 
reasoning hero worshippers of whom I was one of the most 
radical had erected Gen. George B. McClelland upon a high 
pedestal of fame, loyalty and patriotism and were enthusias- 
tically paying devotion to the shrine they had so unthinking- 
ly erected. And yet they were unknowingly paying homage 
to the most secret, wily and specious traitor that this 
century has produced. He laid siege to Yorktown when its 
ramparts were defended by wooden guns manned by a cor- 
poral's guard of rebels. He camped in the swamps of the 
Chickahominy for three months while twenty thousand of 
his soldiers died of disease, and never made an effort to take 
Richmond. During all this time he was howling for more 
men, when he well knew he had plenty of men and that the 
government had no more men to spare him. The battle of 
Malvern Hill afterward conclusively demonstrated that there 
never was a time during the entire campaign when his army 
could not have defeated the rebel army and taken Richmond. 
Lee's army being defeated he ordered a retreat on Ivichmond 
and McClelland's victorious army was ordered by him to 
retreat on Harrison's Landing, and thus were the victor and 
vanquished fleeing from each other at the same time. On 
Lee being informed of McClella.nd's retreat he returned and 
occupied the battle ground. All of McClelland's delays were 
purposely made by him to avoid striking a death blow at the 
rebellion before the rebels were fully prepared to successfully 
resist it. I have no motive or desire to malign the dead but 
the facts as set forth in this work are made to correct the false 
praise and flattery so lavishly bestowed upon this miserably 



8 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldom. 

incompetent general by historians and hero-worshippers ; to 
vincHcate the bravery and devotion of the noble old Army 
of the Potomac' and that coming generations may know the 
actual truth and execrate him as his basen,ess and treachery 
so richly merit. This work has been compiled from the vivid 
recollections of the events as they occurred during the civil 
war, and now after the lapse of thirty-four years the memory 
of them seems as fresh and green as though they had oc- 
curred but yesterday. I appreciate fully this grand era of 
brotherhood and goodfellowship now so happily arrived at 
between the two sections of our re-united country and there- 
fore beg indulgence from the reader for any seemingly too 
vigorous language which may occur within this work, 'but 
truth impels me to say that the cruelties perpetrated upon 
the defenceless prisoners of war fully justify its use. 

THE AUTHOR. 




'The vSprcter of the Rebel Prison Hell." 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 

At Camp Wilkins 14 

At Fredericksburg 1862 25 

Arrival at White House Landing 32 

Amusing Tricks 44-45 

At Manassas 4 

Amusements in Camp 59 

Attempt to Escape 107 

Appointed Wardmaster 153 

Battle of Drainsville 16 

Budd Gaskell 17 

Battle of New Market 3^-39 

Battle of Antietam 51-52-53 

Battle of Fredericksburg 67-68 

Burnside Stick -in-the-Mud 69 

Battle of Bethesda Church 86-87-88 

Belle Isle IC5 

Belle Isle Bill of Fare 113 

Camp Scenes 57 

Controversy of the Guards 74-75 

Cut of Libby Prison 103 

Cut of Belle Isle 109 

Conflict with Graybacks 171 

Comrade Golden's Experience 194 

Death of Sisler 81-82 

Dick Turner .... 148 

Disciples of Esculapius 166 

Dead House 178 

Death Rate at Salisbury 211 

Death Rate of Rebel Prisoners 225 

Fvxpiration of Term of Servic , . . . 85 

Exchange of Prisoners 175 

First Enlistment ... 13 

First Man of the Regiment Killed 15 

Fredericksburg Arsenal Explosion 26 

First Man Killed by the Enemy 27 

Foraging at Fredericksburg 65 

First Escape 116 

Fatal Doctors 169 

Fall of Richmond 183 

Gaskell and the Negro , . . 18 

Gaskell and the Colonel's Whisky 19 



lo Contents. 



Gaskell and the Ice Cream 20 

Gaines' Mills and Savage Station 35 

General McClelland and General McCall 37 

Gaskell overboard at Fortess Munroe 42 

General McClelland at Antietam 53-54-55 

Gaskell in Camp 7° 

Incidents on the March 84 

Joseph W. Sturgiss 48 

James Axton 60 

Loss of the Bakers' Turkeys .... 79 

McClelland's Incompetency 40 

Manassas Gap 31 

Negroes in Camp 28 

Original Bean Bake 77 

On the Way to God's Country 215 

Petersburg , ,..,.. 91 

Regimental Officers 13 

Retreat to White Oak Swamp 37 

Recruiting at Alexandria 76 

Recapture 121 

Recapture 127 

Review of McClellandism 159 

Rebel Prisoners at the North 219 

Squawk 30 

Soldiers Pastimes ... 41 

South Mountain 49-50 

Snakes 63 

Second Escape 123 

Salisbury 189 

Salisbury Prison 191 

The Coming Struggle 11 

The Colonel Excited 22 

To Manassas 23 

To the Peninsula 29 

The Capture loi 

Down to Castle Thunder 141 

Warrenton 46 

The Massacre at Salisbury 206 

Wounded 47 

Woodward 157 



CHAPTER I. 
The Coming Struggle. 

There come scenes and incidents into almost every 
human hfe, which so electrify the whole being, mental, moral 
and physical, that the impress of them is never effaced ; and 
so it happened, on a beautiful spring morning in the month 
of April, 1861. The hurly-burly of the exciting presidential 
campaign of i860 — when that wonderful westerner, Abra- 
ham Lincoln, had been chosen chief executive — had subsid- 
ed, and the calm which succeeds the storm had come, and 
notwithstanding that there was to be heard, now and then, 
the rumbling of complaint from the southland, which fell 
upon the ear of the law-abiding, peace-loving citizens of the 
north, like the diapason of the dying thunders when the sum- 
mer shower is overpast. But alas ! there was to be a fearful 
awakening from the supposed security, which it was thought 
had been secured to the nation in the election by constitu- 
tional methods, of a president who, according to usage, 
should preside over the destinies of the country for the term 
of four years next succeeding. But the institution of 
slavery, of which the immortal John Wesley said "it is the 
sum of all villainies," had so ingrained itself into the web and 
woof of southern thought and action, that the people of that 
section had come to regard it as inseparable from their hap- 
piness and prosperity. Indeed they professed to believe, and 
so declared to the world, that they proposed to build a Re^- 
public, the chief corner stone of which should be the institu- 
tion of human slavery, and with that fearful heresy, which 
had grown with their growth, and strengthened with their 
strength, fastened upon them, until it had become their 
nemesis to lure them on to certain destruction. 

They trained their guns upon historic Fort Sumter, and 
when, at high noon of that calm and lovely April day in 1861, 
the lanier of that cannon was pulled, its brazen throat brayed 



12 



Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldom. 



out the clialleng-e of reliellion, and its rever1)erations were 
heard around tlie civihzed world ; and the cause of human 
freedom everywhere stood breathless with amazement, and 
although the cheeks of i)atriots blanched, and trembling 
seized their frames, it was not the blanching of fear, nor the 
tremor of cowardice. Oh ! no, it was rather a prescience 
of the fearful sacrifice which they so clearly saw must be 
made in blood and treasure, to vindicate before the world the 
inspired teachings of the Declaration of Independence tint 
all men arc inherently possessed of certain inaliena1)le rights, 
among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. 
So we say armed rebellion had thrown down the gauge of 
liattle and thus were we of the north not only put upon our 
mettle as patriots, but our position was well defined. We 
contended no longer for an abstract dogma, or capricious 
w liim, but for the salvation of our country, and its beneficent 
instituti<)ns. 

As the reverberations of Ruffln's cannon went sounding 
through the land, waking the country from profound peace 
to the realities of civil war, (the first shot was fired upon 
Sumter by Edward Ruft^n of \^irginia), the whole nation, 
but yesterda)' wrapped in the habiliments of a profound 
peace, now fiew to arms and the dread alarms of war waked 
the echoes on hill and dale, and from the rock-ribbed coast of 
New England, to the golden horn of the Pacific, preparation 
for the on-coming struggle was the all-absorbing order of the 
day. ( )](! men upon wliom advancing age had laid the 
hea\\' tribute of (lecre])itude, forgot their years and rushed 
to arms, and the youth of the land, in the first blush of young- 
manhood, docked to the rendezvous, and offered themselves 
willing sacrifices upon their country's altar, to serve and 
to die if need 1)e in order that armed rebellion should be 
crushed (nit and Old Glory made again to shake her starry 
folds in every breeze that springs from mountain top or bil- 
lows crest over every foot of soil, made sacred by the blood 
of our fathers, in freedom's cause. 

With patriotic motives burning high within me, T with 



First Enlistment. 13 

many thousands oi my country's sons, donned the blue of 
a soldier boy with a faint conception of the hardship, danger 
and exposure we were to endure, but with a rugged and un- 
faltering determination to sustain our beloved country in its 
struggle with the cohorts of rebellion to the bitter end. I 
was nineteen years old, strong and vigorous, and my com- 
rades were all young and hearty men, and with unquenchable 
patriotism those who survived the tirst three years of service 
with few exceptions re-enlisted for another three year term. 
Part of the time we were attached to the First Corps under 
McDowell, but the most of our service was in the Fifth 
Corps of the Army of the Potomac of which the Pennsylvania 
Reserves composed the Third Division. 

On April 22d, 1861, the writer enlisted in Captain S. D. 
Oliphant's company which was organized at Uniontown, Pa., 
for the three months' service. On our arrival at Pittsburgh. 
Pa., we found the quota for the three months' men already 
filled, so we at once re-enlisted for three years, or during the 
war. I pause here to say that the company (Oliphant's) was 
known as the Fayette Guards, and in proof of the kind of ma- 
terial of which it was composed will add a list of the names 
of the men who were promoted from it into the three vears' 
organization by which we were absorbed : 

S. D. Oliphant promoted to lieutenant colonel. 

T. B. Gardner promoted to major. 

S. p.. Ramsey promoted to first lieutenant. 

H. H. Patterson promoted to second lieutenant and 
adjutant. 

W. Searight promoted to captain. 

H. C. Dawson promoted to captain. 

H. H. Macquilton promoted to second lieutenant. 

J. W. Sturgis promoted to second lieutenant. 

\\> were temporarily cjuartered on board the river 
steamer Marengo, which lay at the foot of Market street, and 
were drilled in a puljHc hall at the corner of Market and 
Water streets. We were boarded at the Girard House, on 
Smithfield street. This hotel was at the time kept by a gen- 



14 Incideiits and Adventures in Rebeldom. 

tlemaii by the name of Fell. We were afterwards removed 
to Camp Wilkins, (the old fair grounds), which we occupied 
for some len.s^th of time, in common with Colonel McLain's 
Erie Resriment. This Erie Regiment had been uniformed 
in suits of gray consisting of jacket and pants, and they soon 
l)ecame worn and ragged, and all appeals for clothing had 
been refused. One genius among them whose pants had 
been entirely worn away at the seat, determined to appeal to 
the public which he did in the following original manner. It 
was the custom for crowds of visitors to come lo camp on 
Sundav and the Erie man having painted the words "The last 
resort" in l)ig black letters on a large shingle, attached a cord 
to it and hanging it over the seat of his pants, went parading 
around camp among the visitors. This novel walking adver- 
tisement of their necessities soon brought the desired cloth- 
ing, and T think thev were mustered as the Eightv-Third. 
P.V. 

Here we received our assignment as Company G, 
Eighth P. R. \ . C, Colonel Geo. S. Hayes conunanding. 
Soon after we were sent to Camp Wright which was located 
on the Allegheny River above Pittsburgh. 

After a short sojourn here we received marching orders ; 
accordingly we were marched to Pittsburgh, where, after 
passing that most trying ordeal of leavetaking of the loved 
ones left behind, we took the cars on Liberty street and 
headed for the seat of war. This was on the 21st day of 
July, the day of the first battle of Bull Run. The tidings 
from the bloody field were flashing northward over the mag"- 
netic wires, and the news was not of a reassuring- character ; 
excitement ran high, and any man, or woman, who that day 
wore a snn'lc, was looked upon with grave suspicion, and 
in order to put a check upon the exuberance of expression 
of any sympathizer with the cause of the Confederacy, there 
were hempen nooses decorating all the lamp-posts along 
Liberty and Penn avenues. But w^e sped on, and without 
incident worthy of note arrived at Harrisburg, Pa., where 
we were hastily armed with old Harper's Ferry muskets. 



Departure to the Front. 15 

These muskets will be remembered by the old soldiers as the 
g-iin that the boys of '61 used to say, "The fellow who stood 
at the butt end was in more danger than the one who was 
shot at." We were supplied with a few rounds each of fixed 
ammunition, in order that we might be ready to fight our 
way through Baltimore in case we should be attacked as 
some of the New England troops had been a few days pre- 
viously, but fortunately no opposition was offered. 

We remained for a few days in the outskirts of the city 
of Baltimore and then moved on to the capital of the nation, 
and encamped at Meridian Hill, where we were formally 
transferred from the state to the United States service, for 
the term of three years or during the war, saicl transfer being- 
made on the 2Qth day of July, t86i. 

The first fatal shooting accident in the regiment oc- 
curred while in camp at Meridian Hill. Our muskets had 
been loaded wath buck and ball in anticipation of an attack 
from the rebel element while passing through Baltimore, 
and it became necessary to extract these charges. To do 
this a ball screw is attached to the end of the ramrod and in- 
serted in the muzzle of the gun, screwed into the bullet and 
the charge withdrawn by pulling out the ramrod. A man in 
Company B neglected to remove the cap from the nipple 
of his gun and in pulling out his ramrod the cock of his piece 
caught on a small pine tree at the butt of the musket, dis- 
charging it. The charge, ramrod and all struck him in the 
])it of the stomach and passing obliquely through his body 
came out at the back of his neck. I was standing nearby 
and ran to his assistance but he was dead when I reached 
liim. Our next move brought us to a place called Tennelly 
Town where we proceeded to construct a formidable fortifica- 
tion known as Fort Pennsylvania, and some ten miles distant 
at the great falls of the Potomac, our command was inducted 
into the mysteries of picket duty. 

I had forgotten to mention that the arrival of our com- 
mand and other troops from Baltimore, at Washington, was 
highly opportune, as the Secessionists of both these cities 



1 6 Incidents and Advevtiires in Rebeldojn. 

liad l)Ccome asi^ressive and threatening- to the safety of the 
cai)ita] ; this dan^^e^- to Washington was greatly enhanced 
h^• the recent defeat of the Union forces at Bull Run. 1'he 
arrival of this well organized division had the effect of re- 
storing confidence, and assured for the time-being, the safety 
of the capital. The wisdom and foresight of Governor 
Curiin and the legislature of the state in organizing and 
equipping the Pennsylvania Volunteer Reserve Corps, and 
holding them in readiness for an emergency, was now fully 
vindicated. After the danger which had menaced the city 
had subsided our command crossed the Chain Bridge, and 
built at Camp Pierpont, on the south side of the Potomac 
River, our winter quarters. It was while we ^^'ere in camp 
here that the Battle of Drainsville was fought and won ; this 
occurred on the 20th of December, 1861, and was the first 
victory recorded for the Army of the Potomac. 

The prisoners captured here were Alal^amians and they 
were the first rebels I had seen in armed rebellion against 
the authority of the Ignited States, \\diile at Pierpont M. P. 
Miller of my company l)ecame insane from reading yellow 
back novels of the Claude Duvall species. Commodore 
Jones, of South Sea Exploring Expedition fame, owned a 
mansion nearby and Aliller having secured a long, rustv old- 
fashioned navy cutlass there, belted it around him and re- 
turning- to cam]) at dress parade, took position in rear of 
Colonel Hayes and with his rusty blade imitated all the move- 
ments of the colonel, .\fterwards he took to the woods and 
running- to tlie Potomac plunged in. He was saved from 
drowning and removed to the Insane Hospital at Washing- 
ton, where he died. 

Grim-visaged War. horril)le in all its aspects, neverthe- 
less finds some mitigation in the character and disposition of 
those who make up the rank and file of its legions. Every 
company in all our vast army probably had one or more in- 
di\iduals. who, by their ])ranks and idiosyncrasies made even 
the life of the soldier on the march and in the field tolerable, 
by injecting something v)f the ludicrons into the most ser- 



Gaskell ami the Snakes.' 17 

ions and disheartening circumstances. Well, Company D, 
of the Eighth Reserves, had one of the aforesaid geniuses 
in the person of one, Bud Gaskell. This man Gaskell num- 
bered among his varied accomplishments a mysterious power 
over the reptile family, and as a matter of fact he could and 
did handle snakes with perfect impunity. Bud was a fine 
specimen of physical manhood, in short he was an active 
athlete, and hence his practical jokes were usually endured 
by his victims with more complacency than would otherwise 
have been the case. While our command lay at Tennelly 
Town and Pierpont, Bud in some manner secured two 
snakes of fair dimensions which he carried constantly about 
his person ; sometimes they were secreted in the sleeves of his 
blouse, sometimes in his iiat, and revolting as it may seem, I 
have seen him with his pets in his mouth. Colonel Hayes, 
of the Eighth, was a special victim of Bud's pranks, and 
although he frequently expiated his fun by a sojourn in the 
guardhouse, he was insuppressible. The colonel being a man 
of nervous temperament, naturally hated the sight of a snake, 
yet Bud would approach him, extending his paw for a shake 
with a genial "how do' do. Colonel," when down would come 
one of Bud's snakes into the colonel's hand, then of course 
it would become necessary for the redoubtable Bud to ad- 
journ for the time being. I once saw this fellow approach 
the colonel with a snake coiled within his mouth, its head 
protruding from between his lips, its tongue darting out. 
and in order to secure the officer's attention, he says "Gran- 
ny ! let me kiss you." On this occasion the colonel was 
the first to beat a retreat. There being abundance of timber 
in the vicinity of our camp, we had constructed cabins of a 
very comfortable character, from the trunks of these trees. 
Each one of said cabins was embellished with a huge stick 
chinmey, dau1:)ed within and without with mud to render 
them fire proof, yet it not infrequently happened that the 
mud dried, and crumbled off, leaving the sticks exposed to 
the blaze. So one day as the colonel stood talking near his 
quarters with Captain Connor, he discovered the chinmey 



1 8 Incideiits aftd Adz'enturcs in Rebeldom-. 

of his cabin to be on fire. He called to his negro man to 
bring a bucket of ^vater. and extinguish the flame ; the 
negro seized a bucket of water and climbed nimbly up the 
corner of the building, followed closely by the ubiquitous 
Gaskell, who seemed so very anxious to be of service in the 
emergency that his motive was not questioned, but alas ! 
just as the negro dashed the water into the chimney. (laskell 
feigned a slip of the foot and fallmg against the poor darky, 
sent him, bucket and all, crashing down the chimney into the 
hot ashes on the hearth below. There was a wild yell from 
within the cabin, and instantly tliere sped through the door, 
covered, wool, face and clothing, with ashes, the negro, who 
made good time to a creek nearby, into which he plunged, 
thus saving himself from serious consequences from his 
burning clothing. Meanwhile Gaskell. to give color of ac- 
cident to the matter, suft'ered himself to roll off the roof to 
the ground, whence he gathered himself up. and with dis- 
torted face and limbs, and groanings which would almost 
move the heart of a stepmother, he limped off to his tent as 
though the Inuxlen of the disaster had fallen upon him. The 
colonel looked on in amazement and turning suddenly to 
Captain Connor, he said "Captain where in h — did vou get 

that fool." 

Gaskell, like many another soldier, was possessed of a 
weakness for stimulants which sometimes got the better of 
him. Shortly after the episode with the darky, myself with 
several others, among whom was Gaskell, were detailed for 
camp guard duty, and as we were falling into line I ol)served 
that Gaskell was counting the fries from the head of the col- 
umn and he finally fell in as No. 23. This number being des- 
ignated as Headquarter guard, of course brought the re- 
doubtable Gaskell's beat in front of the colonel's tent, and as 
battalion drill was to be held that day in a field about one mile 
distant from the camp, our hero no doubt thought he saw an 
opportunitv for a speculation of which he proposed to make 
use. Accordingly as soon as the troops had proceeded to 
the drill ground Gaskell entered the tent and confiscated the 



Gaskell and the ColoneV s Whisky. 19 

colonel's whisky 1)ottle, and proceeded at once to convert 
its contents to his own use. The colonel, on his return to 
camp, being desirous of a little something to strengthen and 
stimulate the inner man, proceeded to where he had left his 
bottle, but he looked in vain for it. He probably mistrusted 
what had become of it, for, coming out of his tent, he beheld 
Gaskell staggering up and down his beat, holding his gun to 
its place on his shoulder withjioth hands. x\s is usual on 
such occasions, there were standing about a large lot of com- 
rades waiting to see the fun. But the colonel, not wishing 
to have it generally known among the boys that he was given 
to the use of wdiisky as a beverage, restrained his wrath for 
a short time, but it appeared that the longer he watched Gas- 
kell, who was evidently drunk on his wdiisky, the madder he 
became, so when he could restrain his ire no longer he shout- 
ed out, ''Gaskell ! you d m scoundrel and thief, you 

stole my catsup." Whereupon Gaskell cocked his eye upon 
him, with a comical leer as he said, spelling the words and 
pronouncing them in a drawling tone, "G-a-t-s-u-p. catsup, 
but it wasn't that ! it was r-o-t-g-u-t. rotgut ;" but that 
sort of orthography was too much for the colonel, so he 
roared, "go to your tent, sir ! you wooden-headed thief, 
you ; I will allow no such scoundrel as you are to stand 
guard at my tent." So Gaskell staggered off to his quarters 
singing, "When Johnny comes marching home again," and 
probably as the colonel difl not care to have it bruited abroad 
that he kept whisky in his (|uarters, that was the last of that 
matter, but poor Gaskell never had the chance of standing 
guard over the colonel's tent again. But w^oe to the ped- 
dlers who frequented the camp wdien Gaskell was ofT duty. 
Many a camp peddler's heels flew up. tripped by him. while 
their wares were scattered broadcast, to be gathered in by 
the hungry boys, who were ever ready to profit by Gas- 
kell's tricks. 

At Tennelly Town our camp was located on a hill side, 
and one day a man drove in with a covered wagon, in which 
he had a barrel of ice cream, which he was vending" at ten 



20 



hicidents and Adventures in Rebeldom. 



cents per saucer, and Gaskell was very anxious for some of 
that cream, but he was short the ten cents, but here again 
his wits stood him in good stead : he secured his game by 
deftly removing a linch-pin from the hinder axle, and giving 
the horse a cut with a brush, over went the wagon, out 
tuml^led the barrel, and starting to roll down the hill was ar- 
rested in its mad career by the ever present Gaskell, who 
dived into the contents of that barrel clear up to his middle, 
and came up smiling witli his arms folded low across his 
breast, and a pyramid of ice cream resting upon them. 



hS^ ^ 










Wv^K'.- 






Gaskell and the Ice Cream. 

which towered high above his head, and thus he made for 
his quarters, eating as he ran, and shedding ice cream at 
every jump. 

Gaskell's favorite trick was to spring astride a horse be- 
hind a mounted orderly or citizen, with his snakes up his 
sleeves, and reaching his hands in front of the rider's face the 
squirming reptiles under his very nose would so afifright him 
that he would fall from his horse into the dustv road and 
Gaskell after riding a short distance would slip back over the 
animal's rump and hanging on to his tail would reach for- 
ward his feet and lock them around the hind lees of the horse 



At Alexandria. 2i 

and bring him to a stop, and then dropping Hghtly to the 
ground, scamper off to avoid any unpleasant consequences. 

At the Battle of Fredericksburg our command was so 
nearly annihilated that it was ordered back to Alexandria, 
Va., to be recruited and re-organized. During this time we 
did patrol duty in that city. The government had established 
a contraband camp at that point in which was kept several 
thousand negroes ; it also happened that Nixson's circus had 
gone into winter quarters there, and Gaskell, true to his in- 
stincts managed to steal a clown's fantastic suit which was 
decorated with horns, fringes and bells. One evening he 
dressed himself in this outfit and put in a sudden appearance 
in the negro camp performing acrobatic feats. The terrified 
negroes thinking the devil himself had dropped down 
among them, men, women and children fled precipitately 
through the street, scattering in every direction. Gaskell, 
for this trick, was confined for a time in the slave pen. The 
negroes were employed by the government to perform labor 
on the fortifications, and many of them were so frightened 
that thev never returned to their work aeain. 




CHAPTER II. 
The Colonel Excited. 

I will now relate two incidents which occurred at Ten- 
nelly Town and Pierpont showing the excitable nature of 
Colonel Geo. S. Hayes. Post guard No. 8 w^as stationed im- 
mediately in the rear of the colonel's tent. The guards had 
been instructed, in case it became necessary, for them to 
leave their beats during their turn on duty to call the cor- 
poral of the guard to take their place during their temporary 
absence. So late in the night the guard near the colonel's 
tent raised the cry "Corporal of the guard post No. 8." The 
cry was repeated by the next guard and so on until it reached 
No. I wdiich w^as at the headquarters of the guards. The 
corporal failing to respond, the guard continued repeating 
the cry. The colonel jumped out of his bunk, and hastily 
l)uckling on his sword, rushed up to the guard house, where 
he found a man soundly sleeping on the ground. Roughly 
shaking him he demanded if he were the corporal of the 
guard. "No, sir," cjuickly came the answer, "I am the ser- 
geant of the guard." "Well then," says the colonel, "where 

in h is the corporal of the guard?" "He's out calling the 

relief sir," said the sergeant. "Come with me cjuick," said 
the colonel, "there is something seriously wrong at post No. 
8." So they hurriedly made their way to the guard and the 
colonel excitedly said to him, "sentry, wdiat is the matter 
with you ? What are you raising all this hullabaloo about ?" 
"Why," said the sentry, "I want a drink !" "Drink! 

H and d ," says the colonel, "are you going to 

arouse the whole Army of the Potomac whenever you want a 
drink ? Sergeant arrest that man and place him in the 
guard house. I'll learn you to want a drink while on duty," 
and the colonel w-alked off to his tent, while the sentry w^as 
marched off to the guardhouse. 

Another striking and ludicrous example of the colonel'.^ 



The Colonel Excited. 23 

excitable nature occurred at Camp Pierpont. The colonel 
had the regiment out drilling- on a gently sloping hillside 
and gave the command to nre by file from right to left. 
Now the colonel was mounted on a horse that would not 
stand fire and at the first crack of a gun he turned tail and 
fled, notwithstanding the strenuous exertions of the colonel 
to hold him, but each additional shot lent wings to his flight 
and he carried the colonel over the hill and out of sight. 
Meanwhile the firing proceeded and finally the head and 
shoulders of the colonel could be seen above the brow of the 
hill excitedly swinging his sword and yelling, "Cease firing ! 
Cease firing," accompanied by numerous cuss words to add 
emphasis to his orders. But the men were enjoying the situa- 
tion and could not hear his orders, and whenever they fired 
a new volley the head and shoulders of the colonel would 
suddenly disappear again. They finally ceased their fire and 
allowed the raging colonel to approach, who instantly 
ordered the regiment to camp, threatening to buck and gag 
the first man that fired oft* his gun on the way back. 

I shall not attempt a discription of the many battles in 
which we participated, only in so far as may be necessary to 
the explanation of incidents properly coming within the 
province of a work of this nature. 

On learning that the enemy had evacuated Manassas, 
the reserves broke camp at Pierpont on March loth, 1862, 
and marched for that point. This march, owing to the in- 
clemency of the weather, was the hardest, most exhausting 
and fatiguing that the reserves ever experienced during 
their term of service and was caused by the stupid blundering 
of some one high in authority. 

This senseless and worse than useless march was made 
from our camp at Pierpont during one of the most terrific 
storms of sleet and rain which it was ever my misfortujie to 
encounter, and to add to the aggravation of the situation, 
when we had almost reached Manassas, our objective point, 
here came the order to countermarch on Alexandria, and on 
reaching that point during a heavy snow fall we were iDaded 



24 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldom. 

upon platform cars, and sent l^ack to Bull Run. This ex- 
perience was simply awful ; it was a regular Burnside stick- 
in-the-mud with additional horrors. The roads throughout 
this section of the country had been transformed into rivers 
of mud, axle deep, and rain and sleet continued in ceaseless 
down-pour night and day. Men, completely exhausted, fell 
out of rank, and dropping dow^n in the fence corners, died of 
fatigue and exhaustion. I remember one night while on our 
return march we halted in a piece of woodland, completely 
fagged out, the down-pour continuing ; the ground was reek- 
ing with water, so that lying down was impractical, so setting 
to work we felled a hickory tree and building a fire against it, 
I sat down before it with my cap drawn over my eyes, and 
immediately fell asleep. On awakening I found the leathern 
frontis entirely burned from my cap. On resuming the 
march, it being impossible to follow the roads on account 
of the depth of the mud, we were obliged to take to the fields 
and woods, and as the paths formed by the advance became 
impassable, those in the rear would be obliged to start a new 
one and thus we struggled on. 

Upon reaching Alexandria we were started back to the 
place whence we came. Now if there was ever an intelligible 
reason assigned for these blundering, quixotic movements, 
which cost the Republic vast sums of money, and the sacri- 
fice of many precious lives, I have never heard of it. On 
reaching Bull Run and finding that the railroad bridge had 
been destroyed, a foot-way was constructed across the 
stream and we continued our march to Manassas. At that 
point several of my comrades and myself were fortunate 
enough to secure a hut which the rebels had occupied and 
failed to destroy when they left. We gathered a lot of wood 
and soon had a fire started within, which dried out the shanty 
and enabled us to spend a night in comfort, secure against 
the raging of the elements. 

The next morning upon going to the site of the rail- 
road station T saw several old locomotives which the rebels 
had left for the scrap pile, all of wiiich were very badly dam- 



Camp at Fredericksburg, 25 

aged ; amongst them was one named "Farquier," that being 
the name of the county in which Manassas is located. W^e 
moved back a short distance from the raih'oad and went into 
temporary camp. In the meantime, the elements seemed to 
have spent their fury and the weather had become warm and 
pleasant. During our stay here some of our soldier boys en- 
tered a car. which lay at the station freighted with hospital 
stores, and proceeded to confiscate some of said goods, but 
unfortunately for them among the things which they stole 
was some wine, and of course they proceeded to fill up on 
this product of the vine, but, alas ! it proved to be wine of 
antimony, and the result was that they paid the penalty of 
their escapade with their lives. 

After a brief stay at Manassas, we marched away for 
Catlet Station, taking the railroad bed ; and as the weather 
was now very hot, walking on the cross ties was exceedingly 
tiresome and the men suffered almost as greatly from, the 
heat on this march as they had from cold on the march of a 
few days previous, and it was somewhat amusing to see them 
shed their overcoats and blankets and on coming up with an 
engine which a repair gang had standing near where they 
were repairing the track, the boys threw blankets and over- 
coats upon it, until it was so completely covered up that one 
could scarcely tell what it was. On reaching Catlet Station, 
w^e left the railroad track and taking the county road marched 
for Fredericksburg, but upon reaching Falmouth went into 
camp in a piece of pine woods in the rear of that place. The 
market at Falmouth was well supplied with fish of the her- 
ring variety, also with peanuts galore. This latter com- 
modity could be purchased at five cents per peck, but as they 
were raw we were obliged to do the roasting act ourselves. 
Occasionally some of the boys who had a little remaining 
money would go to Falmouth and applying at a private 
house would secure an extra meal of herring and bacon. It 
had become customary among the boys in speaking of pork 
and crackers, to call it hard tack and sow-belly, and it had 
been so long thus dcsio-nated that these useful articles of 



26 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldom. 

army diet were scarcely known by any other name. One day 
Sergeant Stewart, of Company G, went to Falmouth and in- 
duced a lady of the place to get him up a dinner of herring 
and bacon, so sitting down to the table he proceeded to dis- 
patch his meal which seemed to fit his appetite to a charm, 
when out of compliment to his hostess' skill as a cook he 
thoughtlessly remarked, "Madam, this is the best sow-belly 
I ever tackled." The lady, greatly surprised, said "What 
did you say, sir ?" Stewart, greatly embarrassed and blush- 
ing, said, "Oh ! Ah ! Excuse me, I mean to say really I 
think this the best bacon T have ever tasted," and while that 
was the best he could do under the circumstances, he did not 
regain his wonted composure until he was well out of that 
house. 

The bridges had all been destroyed by the rebels, but 
the Yankees constructed a temporary one of canal boats 
until they could rebuild the railroad bridge, after which we 
crossed over and took possession of Fredericksburg, going 
into camp in the rear of the city on the heights. While we 
were here in camp the arsenal at Fredericksburg was acci- 
dentally blown up, supposedly by the dropping of a shell 
from the hand of a guard, and strange to say he was the only 
person killed by the explosion. There were a large number 
of army muskets stored in the building, which were hurled 
high in the air, and on coming down bayonets first, were to 
be seen sticking upright in the roofs of the houses. In a 
neglected cemetery near our camp lie the mortal remains 
of the mother of the first president of the United States of 
America, and as I stood by the neglected grave of the mother 
of America's great chieftain, and saw the marble shaft which 
had evidently been designed to perpetuate her illustrious 
name, lying prone upon the ground, pitted by bullet marks 
from rebel guns, I could Init think what a sad commentary 
upon human greatness as exemplihed in this rebel respect for 
the mother of the Father of the Country. While in camp at 
Falmouth we were dispatched on an expedition to the Eagle 



First Man Killed. 27 

Gold mines to block the United States ford over the Rappa- 
hannock River to prevent the crossing of rebel cavalry. 

At this place G Company of the Eighth Regiment lost 
its first man killed by the enemy ; his name was Jared Beach. 
He was shot and instantly killed by a rebel farmer. This 
cowardly murder of Beach was similar to that of the noble 
Elsworth at Alexandria, Va., but unfortunately this murder 
was not avenged, as the murderer made good his escape. 
Beach was knocking at the door when the rebel who had 
seen him approach the house, leveled his gun, and firing 
through the door, the shot took effect in Beach's stomach 
and was fatal. This murderer's family should have been con- 
ducted to the confederate lines, and his house and farm build- 
ings burned to the ground. But our ot^cers at this time strove 
to avoid anything that might irritate our misguided southern 
brethren whom they hoped to coax back into the Union by 
soft words and gentle deeds, which as the sequel shows, was 
a mistaken policy, but it does seem strange how long it took 
our authorities to find out and realize the fact that they were 
dealing with desperate traitors in rebellion, who would be 
satisfied with no compromise, and nothing short of the com- 
plete success of their scheme of secession, and a total separa- 
tion from the sisterhood of states. Virginia was at this 
time infested, and in fact all during the war, by a horde of 
natives, who were robbers and murderers by night, but who 
posed by day as quiet and inoffensive farmers. At night 
they w^ould rendezvous at a convenient point, and under 
Mosby or some other guerrilla leader, start out on murdering 
and plundering expeditions. These wanton villians ought all 
to have been punished with death, and their property de- 
stroyed from the outset as fast as it fell into our hands. 

While we were lying in the vicinity of Fredericksburg, 
Va., our camp was thronged by contrabands of both sexes, 
and many laughable incidents occurred, a few of which I will 
narrate. One day a gray-headed, venerable-appearing old 
darky came into camp accompanied by two of his daughters, 
strapping wenches they were too ; these he wished to hire 



28 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldom. 

out to the soldiers to do housework. After joking the old 
chap for a while some soldier procured a cracker box and 
mounting the old negro upon it, soon had him preaching 
for dear life to a very mixed congregation ; but his devotion 
was to be severely tried for when with closed eyes he knelt 
in prayer, some one would throw a penny on the box and in- 
stantly his eyes would fly open and he would make a frantic 
grab for the coin, before some other darky laid hold upon it. 
The next minute the soldiers would have the old preacher 
patting the juba and singing while the other darkies danced. 
They would swing the wenches in a bewildering manner, 
kicking up the dust, in singular contrast with the late devo- 
tional exercises. They accompanied their dance with hand 
clapping, and a monotonous song as follows : 

De gals an' de boys went a huckleberry huntin' 

Fo' sho', fo' sho'. 
An' out dar in de woods da seed suffin', 

Jes' so, ies' so. 
I'se gwine home to tell my mammy. 

Fo' sho', fo' sho'. 
O Lord, mammy I seed sum' fin, 

Jes' so, jes' so. 
Doan' yo' see dem niggers all a comin", 

Fo' sho', fo' sho'. 
Dey gwine out fo' a possum huntin'. 

Jes' so, jes' so. 
Dev kotched a possum but he don got away. 

Fo' sho', fo' sho'. 

Niggers doan' eat no possum to-da_y. 

Jes' so, jes' so. 

And with much more of the same kind until the dancers 

were obliged to desist from sheer exhaustion. Among our 

darkies was one who was continually laughing. Fie would 

laugh at anything, and everything ; if you spoke to him he 

laughed, if you cursed him, he laughed, as if the joke were 

on you. On one occasion Comrade Jerry Jones picked up 

an empty gun and pointing it at him said, "Now laugh, you 

black rascal, and laugh hearty, or I w^ill blow your brains out." 

The darky, though badly frightened and dodging from side 



To the Peninsula. 29 

to side to keep out of range of the threatening: gun, his peals 
of laughter rang out, until they woke the echoes, and one 
would have thought his very soul convulsed with the mer- 
riest emotions. But alas for poor Jerry ! He was wounded 
badly in the hip at the Battle of Gaines' Mill, and in conse- 
quence honorably discharged from the service, but after re- 
maining at home and measurably recovering from the effects 
of his wound, he was seized with a longing to be with his 
comrades in the field. Accordingly he re-enlisted and joined 
his old company and served through that most arduous cam- 
paign from Culpepper to Petersburg, and while so many of 
the best and most hardy of our soldiery succumbed to the 
hardships of this campaign, Terry passed through unscathed 
only to be taken prisoner at the Yellow Tavern and sent a 
prisoner to Saulisbury to suffer death by slow starvation in 
that prison hell. "Peace to your ashes, brave, genial, gener- 
ous Jerry. A fellow of infinite jest, of rnost excellent fancy." 

On leaving Fredericksburg for the Peninsula we were 
marched to a point on the Rappahannock, some eight miles 
below the city, to a landing where a vessel awaited us. 

We were accompanied by a fine brass band, in which 
the regiment took great pride. Upon boarding the ship. 
the band struck up a lively air, soon the banks of the river 
swarmed with darkies who could not resist the inspiriting 
strains, and a lively dance among them was the natural re- 
sult. The young negroes up to the age of sixteen or seven- 
teen, of both sexes, were gowned in a single garment of tow 
cloth, constructed in the form of an ordinary night shirt and 
I say to you that there were more shirt skirts fluttering in 
the wind that clay than on the clothes line of a thrifty house- 
wife, after a two weeks' washing. It was a most ludicrous 
scene and the boys cheered them on to redoubled exertion 
until the boat sailed away. 

Among the contrabands was a boy, of about fifteen 
years of age, whom my messmates concluded Avould answer 
our purpose as a cook. Accordingly he was selected and in- 
stalled as cook and o'eneral utilitv man. IJis name was Rich- 



30 



Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldom. 



niond Crutchfield and he proved to be quite an original and 
a highly imitative darky. We dubbed him Coon. He said 
he was a " 'Ligiousnigger," but his '"'Hgion" soon evaporated 
under camp influences as was witnessed by his profanity, for he 
soon learned to swear like a marine, and what was worse he 
seemed to think that cumulative profanity would be the 
most useful to him, so as fast as he acquired an oath he just 
hitched it onto one which he was already master of and then 
he simply swore them all off in a string. 

One day, as a flock of turkey-buzzards happened to be 




flying over our camp, I said, "Coon did ever you shoot a buz- 
zard ?" 'No sar,;' says he, "I nebber did, but one of dem 
'fernal tings spewed on me onct, sho !" "Why, how did that 
happen ?" I asked. "Well, I'll des tell you," said Coon. 
"One of ole masser Crutchfield's mules, he dun gone an died. 
An he war lay in' in de fiel' an I go dar to fotch de cows, and 
dar two ole buzzards was des a pickin' away at dat ole mule's 
liaid, an' I frowed a stone at em an' da flewed up des plum 
ober mi haid, an' one ob dem he jes fotch a squawk, an' he 
spewed a whole hat full spat down on mi haid, dats wat he 



Manassas Gap. 



31 



did honey." ''Why didn't you shoot him ?" asked one of 
the boys, as soon as he conld get his breath for laughing at 
Coon's comic account of the transaction ; "Shoot him," 
says Coon, with a string of oaths that would have stopped a 
pirate ship, in mid ocean, "Shoot him ! how I gwine to 
shoot him when I dun aint got no gun." 

Company C also had a negro boy, about Coon's age, 
who had the biggest opening under his nose, ever seen in 
a human face, and to set it off to the highest advantage, it 
was decorated with a pair of lips which resembled a couple 
of mahogany logs, lying on opposite sides of a swamp ditch. 
At the stern command of one of the mess, "Show us Manas- 
sas-gap," down would go his chin, until it touched his 
breast, and such a yawning cavern as would instantly appear 
would have a tendency to paralyze the average boarding- 
house manager. And the ivory which would be displayed 
would have caused an African tusk dealer to have turned 
green with envy. On account of his ability to perform this 
act we named him Manassas. There was existing, between 
this darky and Coon, a deep-seated hatred. One day Coon 
undertook to drive a shoat away from about the tent, saying, 
to the pig, "Go 'long out ob dis, 'fore I knock de bow knot 
outen yo' tail." Just then Manassas put in an appearance, 
saying, "Wha yo' dun struck dat 
pig fo'." Coon rushed up to him 
saying,"! dun struck 'im, yo' black 
rascal, I dun struck 'im." "G'way 
fom me, nigah, fo' I done snatch 
all de har outen yo' black head," 
said Manassas. "Whar'U I hit yo'." 
exclaimed Coon, shaking his ham- 
like fist over Manassas' head,"Gor- 
a-mighty Jerusalem, whar'll I hit 
you ? I don kick up de trash wid 
yo' in a minute." And no doubt 
a lively scrimmage would have re- 
sulted had not Gaskell come onto Manassas-gap. 




32 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldom. 

the scene, Init a sight of that magician ^vas enough, away 
scooted both the belHgerents, in opposite directions, and we 
saw nothing more of Coon nntil next day. The negroes were 
so afraid of Gaskell. beheving as they did, that he was the 
devil, they would often go to the woods to sleep, and Coon 
would not always get back in time to get our breakfast, so one 
dav I brought Gaskell around and he shook hands with Coon 
and told him that he was a good nigger, and that he never 
hurt good niggers, so thereafter Coon thought it safe to stay 
in camp and accompanied us throughout the Peninsular and 
Maryland campaigns. 

We were landed at the White House, on the Paniunkey 
River, and then marched to Mechanicsville and took position 
on the right of General McClelland's army within sight of 
Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy. On the 26th of 
June 1862, the Battle of Mechanicsville was fought, in which 
the Pennsylvania Reserves only were engaged on the Union 
side. Back of the lines on Beaver Dam Creek, was a consid- 
erable strip of timber, and at the first volley the negro contin- 
gent took to the woods. The rebel a.rtillery opened upon us, 
but their aim was high, their shots passing harmlessly 
over our heads ; their shells exploding in the woods, 
scattered the negroes in every direction. Coon had been 
made custodian of Lieutenant Macquilton's fiddle, and two 
haversacks filled with rations. Next morning Coon put in 
his appearance minus fiddle or haversacks and in conse- 
quence the mess had nothing for breakfast. I took it upon 
myself to take him to task for the loss of the aforesaid articles 
when the following conversation ensued : "Coon where 
fire tlie haversacks ?" "T dun frode em away." "Why did 
you throw them away ?" "Gor Amighty, Mr. Darby, nigger 
couldn't run fas' 'nuf an' tote dem ar habbersacks." Well, 
why didn't you hide ?'' "I did get nudder nigger to hide 
me under a house, but hadn't l)een dar morn' minnit fo' 'long 
com one of dem shells an' it says *Wha is yo' ? Wha is yo' ' 

ker bang, boom, zip. Good (j Mr. Darby, den I had to 

git outcn (lat mighty quick, an' I was runnin' as fas' as I 



Coon and the Hoppergrass. 33 

could an' 'long cum nudder of dem ar shells, an' he say 
■'ketch-im, ketch-ini' swiss-booni-whiz-z-z-z-z. Lord, Massa 
Darby, nigger had no bizzness roun' dar. Whar de pots an' 
de kittles was a bustin' an' a-tarin' up de groun', fus on dis 
side, den on dat side. No sar, niggar can't stan' no sich 
fiten' like dat, no sir. I codn't spar de time, or Td h-ode 
away mi shoes." 

While the loss of our grub was a serious one, for we were 
mighty hungry after a hard battle and a night of fasting, 
the comical way in which Coon puckered his mouth, and 
by sucking in and expelling the air, gave a perfect imitation 
of the sounds produced by the different sized shot and shells, 
in their passage through the air, was so laughable that we 
forgave him for losing the grub. 

One summer day, as we were doing guard duty at Burke 
Station along the line of the Orange and Alexandria rail- 
road, hearing the peculiar song of a grasshopper on the op- 
posite side of the roadbed, I called Coon's attention to the 
singing of the grasshopper, as I wished to hear the quaint re- 
marks which he would make upon the subject. I said, 
"Coon ! What is that noise over there ?" "Dat am a hop- 
pergrass. Masser Darby," said Coon. "Well," said I, "Go 
and catch it for me !" "Oh, Masser Darby ! Gin I dun get 
ober dar, he dun fly." "Now Coon," said I, "You can't 
make me believe any such stuff as that. You say he is a 
hoppergrass, now, but if you go over after him he will be a 
dun-fly. Now I never heard of such a thing as a grasshopper 
turning into a dun-fly." "Oh ! I doan mean dat, Marser 
Darby," said Coon, "I des mean that he dun flew ; he dun 
gwine away, he dun git out ob dat ar place fo' I dun get dar." 
"O, I understand you now," said I, "you mean that he will 
fly away before you could reach him." "Now you is shout- 
in', honey !" exclaimed Coon, "dat am perzackly what dis 
niggar am tryin' to depress on yo' mine." It was this strange 
vernacular of the negro, and his attempts to use words, of 
which he had not the remotest notion as to significance. 



34 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldoyn. 

that made him a constant source of amusement to the 
northern soldier. 

Coon was a philosopher, too, in his way, and entertain- 
ed radical and peculiar views upon the subject of emancipa- 
tion. He was the only negro I ever met, who was opposed 
to the slaves being freed ; he delivered himself upon this 
miportant topic, after this manner: "Yo' see, Marser Darby, 
it 'ud nebber do to make de darkies free. Now ob cose, dar 
am some good niggers, who will wuk, an' dar am lots of 
lazy niggers, dat am wuffless an' won't wuk, and dem lazy 
niggers, dey dest goin' ter steal all dat de good niggers 
make ! No sar, Marser Darby, hit won't do, niggers doan 
wuk, when da ain't got no masser." And so far as I ever 
learned, Coon never changed his views upon the great 
national policy of Emancipation. 

On our command's being sent to Alexandria, Coon, 
having developed great aptitude for learning, we clubbed to- 
gether and offered to send him North to school, but he re- 
spectfully declined our generous offer. He was afraid of the 
cold of our climate, and chose rather to remain in the South. 
Soon after this, in the vicissitudes of camp life. Coon be- 
came separated from us, and as I learned, entered the govern- 
ment service as a teamster, and that was the last I ever knew 
of poor, comic Coon. 



CHAPTER III. 
Gaines' Mills and Savage Station. 

As we marched away from our camp on Beaver Dam 
Creek, a rebel regiment formed on the opposite bank of the 
narrow stream and stacked arms, neither side firing a shot. 

On the 27th of Jnne the Fifth Army Corps opened the 
Battle of Gaines' Mills, and through some blundering mis- 
take our colonel, George S. Hayes, was served with an order 
intended for Colonel Alexander Hayes, and we were detached 
from the division, moved to the right and relieved Duryea's 
Zouaves, and the Second Regulars of Syke's Division. The 
Zouaves were hotly engaged when we arrived and many of 
them had been killed and wounded. Under a heavy fire of 
artillery, which killed some of our men, the regiment formed 
line of battle in rear of the Zouaves and charging forward be- 
yond their lines drove the rebels into a thick pine woods. 
We encountered here a murderous fire which caused our line 
to halt. My musket had become foul and I dropped to the 
ground on one knee and was ramming away at the cartridge 
with both hands to get the load down when I felt something 
spattering over my face and left side, and on turning round 
I discovered that my comrade, George Proud's head had 
been dashed to pieces and his brain and fragments of his 
skull had been scattered over me. William Kendall, another 
comrade next me, was also killed while I was ramming at 
the cartridge, which I did not succeed in getting down. In 
the meantime the regiment had been withdrawn and had 
marched away without my knowledge, as will be related here- 
after. Our company loss in this battle was seven killed and 
thirteen wounded. 

Immediately after the battle we crossel the Chickahom- 
iny River, on whose banks the battle was fought, and went 
into camp at Savage Station. I must be permitted here to 



36 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldom. 

digress to say a few words upon a subject which puzzled, at 
the time, many soldiers, commissioned, non-commissioned 
and privates ; that is, this: Why our division, armed as it was 
with old useless Harper's Ferry muskets, was marched riglit 
by thousands of stands of the new Springfield rifles, with 
ample fixed ammunititon for them, and forced to face the 
very flower of the well-armed and equipped Confederate 
Army, with those almost worthless weapons in our hands. 
And the mystery does not grow less under the light of subse- 
quent information upon the subject, for it is shown by the 
records of the war department that unusual effort had been 
put forth by the department, in view of the impending battle, 
to get these new arms into the hands of General Geo. B. Mc- 
Clelland, in order that the old Harper's Ferry muskets, with 
which many of his men were armed, might be replaced with 
an arm which would be of some practical use. But as I have 
before intimated we were marched by those new and efificient 
arms to be hurled against our country's foe, in deadly con- 
flict, with our facilities for doing that foe harm minimized. 
This may seem a harsh criticism of General McClelland, but 
in view of the fact that those arms, together with large quan- 
tities of army supplies, were allowed to fall into the rebels' 
hands, without a proper effort to prevent it, seems to justify 
the stricture. 

Savage Station had been made a depot of supply as well 
as White House Landing, and large quantities of army sup- 
plies had been concentrated at this point. The railroad 
bridge over the Chickahominy, a few miles away, having 
been destroyed, a loaded train of cars standing at the station 
had an engine attached to it. The throttle was opened and 
the engine and train sped onward and plunged over the bank 
into the black, slimy ooze of the Chickahominy. There had 
been collected at White House and Savage Station about 
four million dollars worth of army stores, and after the aban- 
donment of those places, these supplies fell into the hands of 
the rebels, as well as some three thousand sick and wounded. 
Although we had fought two battles and had l)een without 



White Oak Swamp. 37 

rest or sleep, and almost without food for two days, McCall's 
Division was selected to guard the Reserve Artillery train ; 
and with our regiments distributed among the batteries of 
that organization, we marched off in darkness and rain over 
a narrow, muddy road for White Oak Swamp. As the army 
was converging at this point there was congestion, confusion 
and delav in getting the immense trains over the one bridge, 
and the arrival of our seven miles of batteries and wagons 
did not tend to lessen it any. We safely crossed, however, 
while the gallant Sumner held the enemy at bay and parked 
the artillery on the high ground bordering the swamp. A 
striking instance of AlcClelland's secret sympathy with the 
rebel cause and attempted treachery to the Union occurred 
on this march. Near midnight, in the rain and black dark- 
ness, an of^cer rode up to General l\IcCall and told him he 
must turn back as he was on the wrong road. 

The general replied that he was on the right road and 
would continue his march forward. About an hour later 
the ofTficer again appeared and informed McCall that it 
was General IMcClelland's positive orders that he counter- 
march his division and train to another road and allow other 
troops to occupy the road he w^as on. McCall again refused 
to obey the order and proceeded on his way. Now a coun- 
termarch of six miles at this time on a narrow road in dark- 
ness, mud and rain was clearly useless and uncalled for, and 
w^as simply a device of the traitorous general to allow the 
capture of the Reserve Artillery by the enemy. And that 
this view of McClelland's duplicity is not an unjust one was 
amply confirmed the next day. On meeting McClelland at 
his campfire surrounded by his general officers the next day, 
he took McCall aside and secretly informed him that he 
wished to reach the James River without fighting another 
battle ; and this he claimed lie could do in twenty-four hours, 
provided he destroyed all his trains including private bag- 
gage. As McClelland well knew that McCall and his troops 
had been subjected to the greatest fatigue and hardship up 
to this time, he no doubt expected that AlcCall would gladly 



38 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldom. 

clear the road by destroying the trains. He had mistaken 
his man. however, for McCall bared his head, standing in the 
rain, and looking McClelland steadfastly in the eye, positively 
and energetically declared that he would fight over every 
inch of ground from there to the James river before he would 
destroy a single wagon. To these brave words McClelland 
made no reply, realizing that he had approached the wrong 
man, and in silence the two generals returned to the camp- 
fire. 

About five o'clock in the afternoon we were relieved 
of the charge of the artillery and marched on the Quaker 
road for Newmarket, and on reaching this point the column 
took an old aliandoned road not shown on the maps, for the 
Quaker road wdiich w^as three miles farther on. After 
marching several miles on this old road it became impassable 
in the darkness and we w^ent into camp. In the meantime 
Syke's and Morrell's divisions of Porter's Corps counter- 
marched and finding a private road passed our division in the 
darkness and by this means reached the Quaker road and 
proceeded towards the James. Porter neglected to notify 
our command of this movement and we were thus abandoned 
by. our corps and commander and assumed the front the fol- 
lowing day in the Battle of Newmarket, Glendale or 
Charles City Cross Roads, as it has been severally called. 

The Eighth Reserves were placed in support of a New 
York German Battery which occupied the corner of a woods. 
A few hundred yards in our front was a frame farm house 
and to the left of the house was a dense alder patch which 
exten.ded across to a woods held by the rebels. The enemy 
finally charged our position. At the first sight of the rebel 
column, although as yet they were in no danger, the coward- 
ly Dutchmen without firing a shot, or waiting to limber up, 
abandoned their guns, mounted their horses and caissons and 
ficd preci])itately from the field. Standing close by I was a 
witness of this disgraceful flight and yet from this incident 
it was reported and circulated throughout the army that the 
Pennsylvania Reserves had been defeated, dispersed and dis- 



Battle of Newmarket. 39 

organized, which was false in every particular, as was amply 
proven later by General McCall on his return from Rich- 
mond, where both he and General Reynolds were taken after 
being captured in this battle. The charging rebels were met 
by counter charges from the Reserves and in the hand-to- 
hand struggles which ensued, numbers were killed by bayo- 
net thrusts. In the second charge of the enemy Captain 
Biddle, of McCall's staff, was killed and his horse ran away, 
but was caught and returned by me. Colonel Hayes' horse 
was struck and torn to pieces by a cannon shot and the 
heavier portions of the animal falling upon the colonel, in- 
jured him so severely he had to retire from the service. The 
loss of the Reserves m this engagement was twenty-five per 
cent, of the number engaged ; twelve hundred being killed 
and wounded and four hundred captured. After nightfall 
we were withdrawn from the field and marched to Mal- 
vern and placed in support of the line of battle on the left. 
As the Reserves were not prominently engaged here, they 
merely being held in reserve to support any weakened point, 
our lossses were small and confined entirely to the enemy's 
artillery fire. During the night the army retired to Har- 
rison's Landing. As the cowardly and despicable McClel- 
land had already abandoned the field at Charles City Cross 
Roads before the beginning of the battle, he also abandoned 
Malvern without waiting to post his lines, and skulked 
aboard a gunboat on the James River six miles away in per- 
fect safety, under the empty and pusillanimous plea that he 
wanted to direct the fire of the gunboats. This service was 
evidently the duty of a staff officer or an orderly and not that 
of the commander of a vast army about to engage in a death 
struggle with a powerful foe. His duty absolutely required 
his personal presence on the field to direct the movements of 
his forces and there is no excuse for the absence of the com- 
manding general during battle except death, disability or in- 
ability to be present. Who ever heard of McClelland mak- 
ing a Sheridan dash for the front. His famous rides were 
alwavs to the rear. He was absent at the Battle of Mechan- 



40 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldom. 

icsville. I did not see him and never heard of this doughty 
general being present on the field of Gaines' Mill, Savage Sta- 
tion or White Oak Swamp, and he was absent at Charles 
City Cross Roads and Malvern Hill. And yet partisans and 
hero-worshippers lauded this traitorous, incompetent and 
pusillanimous general to the skies. As a further review of 
McClelland's incompetency and traitorous actions will l^e 
given hereafter, I will resume the narrative. Nothing of 
note occurred at Harrison's Landing except the return of 
those who had been captured in the campaign, the fruitless 
expedition of the Monitor and Galena against the rebel forts 
at Drury's Bluff, and a vigorous shelling our camp received 
one night from the enemy on the opposite bank of the James. 
This fire destroyed some tents and wounded a few men but 
the gunboats soon got their range and compelled them to 
hastily retire. The next day a detail crossed the river and 
destroyed and cleared away everything for quite a distance 
back to prevent any repetition of their gun practice. Ed- 
mund Ruffin, that conspicuous traitor who had journeyed 
to Charleston to earn a cheap notoriety by firing- the .first 
shot at Sumter, lived here and all his property was totally 
destroyed. And thus, partially at least, was this blatant 
rebel repaid for firing the shot that plunged a happy country 
into a fratricidal war. 




CHAPTER IV. 
Soldier Pastimes. 

Owing" to Gaskell's suppleness and agility he was the 
most pronounced and successful trickster, practical joker and 
all-round bummer in the entire command. In original in- 
vention and rapid execution of comical and mischievous 
tricks he was without a peer and some of them verged on 
the malicious, while others were so decidedly unclean and 
revolting they will not bear repetition in print. In this lat- 
ter class of tricks I will say. how^ever, I never knew Gaskell 
to indulge unless under the influence of liquor. Immediate- 
ly after the Battle of Antietam we were encamped in an 
orchard near a brick farm house which stood on a hill above 
a very large spring at which the military balloon was in- 
flated. As the house was supplied with water from the 
spring by a ram I w^ent there one day to fill our canteens. A 
number of officers had ordered dinner which was being 
served and Gaskell wanted to take a seat at the table but 
Avas not allowed to. He then stationed himself at the head 
of the stairway which led up from the basement kitchen and 
as the girl bearing an immense steak dish filled with meat 
and gravy came up he tripped her, throwing her headlong, 
scattering meat and gravy all over the floor, then making a 
hasty exit, he ran to a sutler's tent and started a raid which 
soon cleaned out the sutler's stock. This unjustifiable act 
was done by Gaskell out of revenge for being denied the 
privilege of eating at the first table with the officers. 

Along the Potomac between Washington and Alex- 
andria there grows in the water l)etwixt the shore and the 
channel a species of sea grass with very long slippery blades. 
A favorite pastime of the soldiers was to go swimming and 
pelt each other with balls made from this grass. By reach- 
ing down the foot and twisting it around the erass enoueh 



42 Incidents and Adventures in Rebehlom. 

of it could l)e pulled up at once to make a ball big enough 
for a twelve pounder and when a hundred or more men were 
furiously '"swatting" each other with these balls there was 
fun galore. Owing to their slimy, wet condition they would 
strike a victim with a suggestive "biff" that would raise 
peals of laughter at the unfortunate's expense. Gaskell, who 
was raised on the banks of the Monongahela, was an active 
and expert swimmer and diver and therefore always took an 
exciting interest in these battles and many a contestant 
would take a sudden header and disappear beneath the water 
by Gaskell diving and elevating his heels in the air. After 
these contests w^ere over he replenished his stock of snakes 
by diving to^ the bottom of the river and overturning stones 
until he had secured enough for his purpose of frightening 
the nervous and timid and the performance of his revolting 
tricks. 

After the Peninsular campaign we were shipped aboard 
the large ocean steamer New Brunswick at Harrison's Land- 
ing destined for Acquia Creek. On reaching Fortress Mon- 
roe a stop w^as made over a mile from shore and as the anchor 
was being dropped, Gaskell seemingly tripped and plunged 
headlong overboard and began making a strangling, suffo- 
cating noise in imitation of a drowning person. His com- 
rades who were in the secret raised the cry of "man over- 
board." Instantly all was excitement aboard and the cap- 
tain hurriedly ordered the launching of a boat in which he 
took position in the bow ready for the rescue. Gaskell in 
the meantime had hidden Ijehind the rudder and was watch- 
ing the captain's movements closely, and wdien he row^d 
around the bow of the vessel Gaskell's cries were always com- 
ing from the opposite side. The captain finally concluded 
to row clear around the ship and Gaskell was discovered 
perched up on the rudder with an idiotic grin on his counte- 
nance, chattering like a monkey. The captain was furious 
and cursed and damned like the proverbial tar, finally say- 
ing : "You d — m — ed idiotic fool, I've a notion to leave 
you there for an h.our or two." "Go to h — 11," replied Gas- 



Amusing- Tricks. 43 

kell, "I'll be aboard before you are," and suiting the action 
to the word he shinned up the rudder chains like a monkey 
and was aboard, very wet, but also very happy because of the 
trick he had served the captain. Before that official could 
turn his boat and get aboard Gaskell had been effectually 
hidden by his comrades from the wrath of the captain. 

At Pierpont where we constructed log cabins in which 
to pass the winter, tricks and practical joking seemed to be 
the order of the day among the boys when oft" duty. Some 
of the tricks resorted to there were not only mischievous 
and reckless, but were actually dangerous, such for instance 
as throwing musket cartridges which were loaded with ball 
and buckshot down neighboring chimneys, endangering the 
mmates of the cabin, to say nothing of the scattered fire. I 
do not remember who originated this dangerous practice, 
but suppose it could be charged up to Gaskell vvith the 
chances ten to one in favor of crediting it to the right party. 
He was the first man I saw at this trick and Colonel Hayes 
was his victim. Shortly after a log guard house with the uni- 
versal stick chimney had been built he played some trick on 
the colonel which aroused the ire of that ofticer. He prompt- 
ly arrested Gaskell and conducting him to the guard house 
placed him in confinement. A sentry paced back and forth 
at the door but at the back where the chimney was there was 
no guard placed. As soon as the colonel's back was turned 
I saw Gaskell's head pop out of the chimney and wag in a 
very omnious manner at the colonel. As it was now getting 
dark I got behind a tree to await developments. Soon Gas- 
kell appeared crawling out of the chimney. Carefully 
climbing down to the ground he slipped oft' unnoticed by 
the sentry, and soon reappeared at the colonel's cabin with 
ten rounds of ammunition which he slyly threw down the 
colonel's chimney. He then rapidly ran to the guard house 
and re-entered it by the chimney route and took a seat in 
a corner and commenced to hum a ditty seemingly too in- 
nocent and peaceful to harm a fly. The colonel, who was in 
the act of lighting his pipe at the fire, was liberally covered 



44 Incidents and Adventiwes in Rebeldoni. 

with hot coals and ashes and snorting with rage he rushed to 
the guard house evidently suspicious of Gaskell, but on seeing 
that innocent individual looking so peaceful and contented, 
blurted out, "You are here are you ; you d — m — ed rascal, 
if you were not here I would swear it was you who threvv 
those cartridges down my chimney." Gaskell protested 
against the colonel's unjust suspicions, saying, "Colonel you 
put me in here for nothing and how could I do it with a 
guard standing over me?" The colonel, after ascertaining 
from the sentry that Gaskell had not been absent, walked 
away still nuittering curses. As his form melted away in the 
gathering- darkness the head and shoulders of the innocent, 
persecuted Gaskell appeared above the top of the chimney 
and his voice in a rollicking song followed the receding 
colonel. 

There was a Dutchman in Company B who started a 
barber shop to shave the bestubbled faces of his comrades 
and thus rake in some extra dimes. He had a sheet iron 
stove in his quarters, the pipe of which he passed out near the 
ground, and then by an elbow it was carried up about as high 
as a man's head. Wdiile the Dutchman was busily engaged 
with a customer, Da\"id Richie dropped some cartridges into 
the stove pipe which lodged at the elbow and after a while 
exploded. The stove was carried from its position and 
struck the Dutchman, who had his back to it, about six 
inches below the back, and Dutchman and stove mixed up 
with hair and lather went flying out the door into the com- 
pany street. 1 he air was filled with German imprecations 
for awhile, but as a jeering crowd soon gathered and fired cut- 
ting remarks at his mishap he soon gathered up the wreck- 
age and retired within his cnbin. In my mess was one Sam- 
uel Drunnn. who is now living in Bloomington, 111. Sam 
took the cartridge throwing fever bad and many cabin fires 
were scattered through Sam's agency. One day when 
Sturgiss was lying in the bunk and I was sitting beside the 
lire Sam was very active in his jiowder throwing, and after 
making a successful throw he would run into the cabin, take 



Amusing Tricks. 45 

a seat on a back log which was lying in a corner by the fire, 
and laugh and gloat over the mischief he had accomplished. 
Joe and I discussed the dangerous practice and concluded 
that Sam ought to be cured of his powder throwing fever be- 
fore he blew out somebody's eyes. Taking some cartridges 
I emptied their contents along the side of the back log just 
below where Sam always took his seat and then laid a train 
from this powder to a point near the fire place. We used 
a club for a poker and sticking this into the fire I Inirnt a live 
coal on the end of it. Presently Sam came in and took his 
seat immediately over the powder, laughing heartily at the 
way he had made some of the boys jump. Seizing the poker 
I gently drew it across the train of powder ; there was a 
flash and Sam's hilarity suddenly ended in a yell that rang 
throughout the camp. He snatched the cap ofl:' his head and 
vigorously fanned the seat of his pants as he jumped and 
pranced over the cabin floor like a three-year-old colt. Now 
there was a rip in the seat of Sam's pants, (which fact was un- 
known to me), and in consequence he was blistered so that 
it was more comfortable for him to stand than to sit. for sev- 
eral days. Sam blamed Sturgiss for serving him this trick 
and v;as very indignant at first but his good nature soon re- 
turned and his malady was so effectually cured that he never 
had a recurrence of the powder throwing fever. 

Among other pastimes of the camp were card playing, 
.boxing, jumping, throwing in a blanket and tossing the 
shoulder stone. At this last exercise Lieutenant Jesse B. 
Ramsey, of Company G, excelled the whole regiment. He 
was a most powerful man. I have seen him weigh out a 
thousand pounds of bar iron and then lift it bodily ofl^ the 
scale platform. Tossing in a blanket is a most ludicrous 
scene and ahvays raised shouts of laughter from the onlook- 
ers, l)ut the fun and hilarity in the practice is never enjoyed 
by the victim of the tossing. Company rows and occasional 
personal encounters at fisticulTs enlivened the tedium of 
camp life, and it is safe to say that among any given number 
of volunteers isolated in camp life there are enterprising in- 
dividuals enough to create excitement sufficient to vary the 
tedious monotonv of camn life. 



CHAPTER V. 

Warrenton. 

After the Peninsular campaign we, that is the Pennsyl- 
vania Reserves, were shipped from Harrison's Landing and 
disembarked at A quia Creek, and thence marched to Fred- 
ericksburg and I think it was on this march that we met a 
large, fine-appearing darky who was walking rapidly toward 
the North. One of the boys said to him, "Hello ! Sambo ! 
whar's you all gwine now ?" "Vse gwine right straight 
Norf," answered the negro. "How far is it to Fredericks- 
burg ?" asked the soldier. 'AVell, sar, ef yo's gwine erfoot 
I don spec its erbout twelve miles, an' if yo"s er boss back its 
erbout eight miles, an' if yo' goes an' gits on de kyars rite 
ober dar, yo's dar now." So you see Sambo's idea of dis- 
tance seemed to be altogether dependent on the mode of 
transportation. 

After resting opposite Fredericksl)urg a short time we 
marched one night for Warrenton via Rappahannock Sta- 
tion. Several miles above Falmouth we became entangled 
in a dense undergrowth of bushes. The night was very dark 
and the men began to murmur and swear as they stumbled 
along. General ATeade had command and one of my com- 
rades yelled as he picked himself up after falling over a log, 
"Boys T wonder where that goggle-eyed old fool is trying to 
take us anyhow ?" General Meade was riding beside us and 
heard the remark, but without saying anything- he rode for- 
ward and halting the column we went into camp and waited 
for daylight. As Meade always wore glasses the boys had 
nick-named him "goggle-eyes," or "four-eyes," and although 
they yelled these names at him frequently he never paid the 
slightest attention to them. 

On arriving at Warrenton we went into camp on a beau- 
tiful lawn which lav round about a fine brick residence. The 



A ni us I Jig Tricks . 4 7 

house belonged to a gentleman whose name was Forbes who 
was serving at the time as quartermaster of the rebel army 
under General Lee. His family had tied upon the approach 
of th^ Yankees, leaving everything about the premises. Up- 
on hearing that there was a fine library among other things in 
the house, I concluded I would go in and draw a book or 
two, as the rules in regard to returning them were not over 
rigid, in short it being a game of catch as catch can. But un- 
awares I walked into a room where General George E. Meade 
was giving some of the soldiers whom he had caught in the 
act of destroying the furniture Hail Columbia with variations, 

saying, "If you had the d d rebel who owns the property 

here, I would not care a d m how soon you hung him, 

but don't w^antonly destroy property." Then much to my 
gratification he added, "If any of you boys want a book to 
read, take it and go, but don't break up the furniture." So 
I walked into the library where the bookcases had been over- 
turned and their contents scattered in w^ild confusion over the 
floor, and proceeded to select my book. I made choice of a 
fine copy of Shakespeare, and going to the barn got a nice 
pole of leaf tobacco. I returned to camp and stemming my 
tobacco, made it into a twist, which, together with my book, 
I placed in my haversack. 

The next morning, August 28th, 1862, we started on 
the March for Manassas, and when we reached Gainesville the 
Johnnies opened upon us with a battery of artillery and the 
second Battle of Bull Run was on. The column was halted 
which left Companies G and B of our regiment in range of 
the rebel fire, and as we stood in line I was scraped by a shell 
wdiich exploded after passing me, and killed Sergeant W. H. 
Leithhead and J. M. Wells, of Company G, and one private 
in Company B. It also took an arm off of W. H. Doud, of 
Company G, and a leg off of the adjutant of the regiment, 
at the same time killing his horse. My clothing, even to 
my shirt, on my left side, was carried away by it as was also 
my bayonet and haversack, Shakespeare, tobacco and all. I 
w^as painfully wounded, although not dangerously, but as we 



48 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldom. 

were squarely l)et\veen Lee's and Jackson's armies, we were 
obliged to get out of there, double quick time. 

After having my wound dressed, I applied for admit- 
tance to a held hospital but it being already overcrowded, 
and being able to walk I returned to my command and Coon 
was ordered by my messmates to care for me. On the third 
day of the battle, in accordance with previous arrangements, 
I with Coon retired to the rear and took up my quarters in 
a pine woods about two miles behind our line of battle ; this 
wood was on the left wing of our forces. In the evening as 
the darky was engaged in cooking a piece of meat for our 
suppers, I olxserved the rebels dash around the left flank of 
our line on the very ground that General Fitz John Porter 
had been repeatedly ordered to occupy by Major General 
Pope. 

Witnessing this move as I did. and taking into ac- 
count that the enemy failed to make the least impression 
elsewhere on our lines, 1 am forced to the conclusion that 
Fitz John Porter was alone responsible for the loss to the 
Union cause of the second Battle of Bull Run. 

Coon and T narrowly escaped capture upon this occasion 
by taking to the Inish and then prudently retreating on 
Washington. In a few weeks I had sufficiently recovered 
from my wound to resume my place in the ranks then on the 
march in Maryland endeavoring to head off General Lee's 
army. 

One, Joseph W. Sturgiss, now a resident of the city of 
Marietta, ()., was my messmate at this time, and as we were 
lying asleep under our Idanket one morning our darky came 
and taking hold of and sli;d<ing Sturgiss, said, "Git u]) Mar- 
scr Sturgiss, de day's dun broke." Joe stuck his head from 
under the blanket and in a stern tone demanded, "Who done 
broke the day ? Just show me the man that done broke the 
day !" The darky struck an attitude of offended piety, and 
])roceeded to prophesy as he said, "Neither yo' mine, Marser 
Sturgiss, yo' soon foun out who dun broke de day. Now de 
fus battle yo' git inter yo's gwine ter git shot ! Den yo' fine 
out who (hm broke de dav." 



South Mountain. 49 

In the course of our marching we struck the National 
Pike at Poplar Springs, and from thence we marched on 
Fredericksburg. Arriving here we found (jeneral Reno hot- 
ly engaged with the Confederate forces, on the field of South 
Mountain. 

Our division at this time being under command of Gen- 
eral Joe Hooker, was ordered into position at the foot of the 
mountain and deployed into line regardless of a murderous 
fire from the enemy's artillery, and a charge was ordered 
upon the rebel line. The charging column swept grandly 
forward carrying everything before it and the retreat of the 
rebels from this field was so precipitous, and the pursuit so 
hot that some of the retreating enemy ran over the brink of 
a precipice at an abandoned stone quarry on the mountain 
side and were killed on the rocks below. 

The negro's prediction that Sturgiss w'ould be shot was 
literally fulfilled, for in the charge up the mountain side, he 
received a shot in the hand. Nevertheless, he captured a 
prisoner, who proved to be major of a South Carolina regi- 
ment, and a son of the governor of that state. Joe, after re- 
ceiving the glove of the rebel major as a pledge that he and 
his companion would remain where they were, started in pur- 
suit of the fleeing enemy. He had only gone a short dis- 
tance, however, when the major's companion treacherously 
fired upon him, but missed. The rebel then started on a 
wild run down the mountain and David Richie, who came up 
at this time, took a shot at him, supposedly wounding him in 
the arm ; the rebel, however, made his escape. On Joe's re- 
turn the major denounced the act of his companion and said 
he had fired without his sanction or knowledge. Joe and 
the major have met since the war and renwed their bat- 
tle field acquaintance. 

Sturgiss, although small of stature, has the heart of a 
giant. "Here's to you, L-ittle Joe, faithful playfellow, gen- 
erous messmate and brave comrade. May your shadow 
never grow less." But for Joe, I should probably have 
closed mv career as a soldier earlv. It was at the battle of 



50 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldom. 

Gaines ]\Iill. Aly gun had become so foul that it was difficult 
to drive the cartridge home. I had dropped on my knee 
and was ramming away to get the load down, when I heard 
my named shouted and upon looking around I saw Sturgiss 
scooting for the rear, wath bullets cutting the ground about 
him like a storm of hail. The facts were, that in the confu- 
sion of the battle, our command had been ordered to fall 
back, but we had not heard the order, and w^ere banging 
away at the enemy. Joe had discovered the situation, and 
sounded the note of warning to me just in time to save me. 
I hesitated, upon seeing the bullets fall so thick about Joe, 
as to whether I should try it, but it was death to remain 
where I was, so I took the chance and for a marvel escaped 
without a scratch. The regiment by this time was out of 
sight, so I took the direction to the York River railroad sta- 
tion. Arriving there I found the boys had not reached that 
point, so I crossed the river on the railroad bridge and made 
for Savage Station, where I came up with them. They had 
crossed the river at Deep Bottom bridge, and gone into tem- 
porary camp at the station. I was not aware of the location 
of the bridge over which my comrades crossed, hence my 
wide detour. 

The enemy's dead on South Mountain were mostly 
killed by shots through the head, as they w^ere behind rocks 
and stone fences and could not be seen until they raised up 
to shoot. Our loss was very small as the rebels in shooting 
down the mountain fired high and the most of their missiles 
passed harmlessly overhead. 

One of the saddest incidents it w^as my lot to observe 
on this field was that of a strapping Confederate soldier wdio 
had taken refuge from the storm of battle with ten or twelve 
others, behind a rock, all of whom had been killed but this 
one, and he had lost both eyes, and was being led off by two 
of my comrades to a place of safety, and wdiat seemed re- 
niarkal)le was that all those that had occui)ied the shelter of 
the rock had been killed by bullets through the head. 

Immediatelv after Sr)uth Mountain we were headed for 



Battle of Antietam. 51 

the Field of Antietam. And on the 17th day of September, 
1862, we were drawn up in hne of battle in front of the his- 
toric corn field, which proved to be the theater of the awful 
holocaust of that battle ground. The fire at this point was 
so terrific that every thing was swept before it, except, here 
and there, a panel of fence. Here I saw a very strange sight. 
Some Union soldier in his excitement in loading his ritie had 
neglected to withdraw his ramrod, and in its flight it had 
struck and passed through the head of a rebel soldier and 
pinioned him to the fence, and there he stood stark dead. 

Among the Confederate troops stationed in the corn 
field was the Eighth Texas. This regiment had a large silk 
battle flag bearing the Lone Star, and I noticed that 
although there was a most destructive fire from our line di- 
rected against it, it still continued to wave, but the sequel 
proved that the Yankee fire had become so fierce about that 
standard that no man could live in it, and the color bearer 
had driven the staf¥ into the ground and the regiment had 
divided off to the right and left of it, hoping thereby to es- 
cape the missies of death which were hurled at it. The staff 
was literally riddled by bullets, but the flag continued to 
wave. At length one of the boys of the Ninth Reserves 
charged alone across the open space into the corn field, 
seized the lone star flag and bore it safely back in triumph 
to his company. 

After the battle was over, I passed over this portion of 
the field and found that the carnage here had been appalling. 
The Eighth Texas had been practically wiped out. They 
had fought heroically, but there lay their dead in line, officers 
and men, as they had fallen, 

"Their backs to the field, 
Their faces to the foe." 

Brave men they were : but a fearful price they paid for their 
treason to the old flag. 

lust back of the cornfield everything was in evidence of 
the destructiveness of our fire. I observed a rebel cannon 



52 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldom. 

which had been struck by a shot from one of our guns which 
had carried away its muzzle, while wrecked caissons, dead 
men and horses were heaped in wild confusion over the blood- 
stained ground. In passing a nearby house, I noticed a dog 
in the yard. He was in a kneeling position as if smelling at 
a rat hole, but upon closer examination he was found to be 
stone dead, having been struck by a stray bullet. A visit to 
the farm yard revealed that the farm stock, horses, cattle 
and hogs, had all shared the fate of the dog, and it was in- 
deed pathetic to see their wide staring eyes, as though they 
had died in amazement at the horrid confusion about them. 
I noticed one horse in particular with its head turned ; with 
its wide eyes fixed upon its fiank, where it had received the 
fatal wound, as if it would inquire the cause of the suffering. 
On entering the barn, the floors and mows were full of 
dead men. The grim reaper Death had gathered his human 
sheaves and garnered them where once had been stored the 
golden grain. The stable of the barn was in the basement. 
There, too, stalls and mangers were filled to repletion with 
the bodies of men who but a few brief hours before were filled 
with life and its varied hopes and ambitions. Surely 

"It might have tamed a warrior's heart 
To have viewed such mockery of his art." 

Just beyond lay a road through something of a cut, and 
in the depression of that thoroughfare the dead lay in win- 
rows. Oh ! the carnage of that field was awful to contem- 
plate ; look where you would the ravages of the dark- 
winged angel confronted you. In open field and shot-torn 
forest lay the mangled forms of soldiers, Federal and Con- 
federate, mingling in that carnival of death, and the foemen 
of an hour ago, now fraternizing in an eternal peace. 

There was standing, near the field of battle, a small 
church edifice, belonging to a denomination of Christian 
people, known as the Dunkers. This unpretentious house 
of God had stood in the range of the artillery and had been 
struck by sixteen solid shot which had gone crashing 



Battle of Antietam. 53 

through it, leaving it little less than a total wreck, while all 
about it lay shot and shell, late the screeching messengers 
of death, now the mute and silent proofs of "Man's inhu- 
manity to man." Here, too, was to be found a most strik- 
ing illustration of the power of education and environments ; 
the people who were wont to worship in the church above 
referred to were doubtless as honest and as sincere as the 
Christian people of the North were, yet while those of the 
North believed human slavery to be the "sum of all villain- 
ies," and as such prayed God for its uprooting and banish- 
ment from the face of the earth, those of the Southland be- 
lieved it to ])e a divine institution, and so proclaimed it 
to be, and prayed earnestly to the same Heavenly Fath- 
er for its preservation, and that it might live and 
spread itself over all the domain of our country. But just 
how it could be, that men had come to believe that they 
had the right to ignore the Divine declaration that, "In the 
sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat thy bread," and to transfer 
to others the responsibility of doing so for them, is not so 
clear to us. But, sure it is, that they professed so to beheve ; 
and they hesitated not to supplement their faith by cruelly 
lashing the bare backs of their slaves, thus outraging every 
principle of human justice, until the arbitrament of the sword 
seemed the court of last appeal and the blackened faces of 
the dead on the field of x\ntietam, staring vacantly in the 
face of high heaven, protested mutely against such unchris- 
tian savagery. 

After the Battle of Antietam had been fought and won, 
as it was by the Federals, the rebel army was truly in a most 
deplorable condition, having been beaten and shattered at 
every point ; it was penned in a bend of the Potomac River, 
without bridge or other means of crossing, and the army of 
Lee was at the mercy of Gen. Geo. B. McClelland. But that 
doughty commander, who had received by common consent 
the nom-de-plume of the ''Unready," was true to his in- 
stincts, and granted Gen. Lee a suspension of hostilities for 
the space of twenty-four hours, ostensibly in which to bury 



54 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldoni. 

his dead, but really in which to lay pontoons and escape with 
his badly whipped and beaten army, thus bearing off the gar- 
land of victory which rightfully should have graced the Fed- 
eral brow, for the battle was fairly won by the boys in blue, 
notwithstanding, as I do truly and sincerely believe, against 
the desire, and intention of our commanding general, for he, 
(General McClelland), in his attempt to justify his conduct, 
and to excuse himself for not gathering up the fruits of the 
victory, w^hich his gallant army in spite of his own pusillani- 
mous conduct, had gloriously won, said he was short of ar- 
tillery ammunition, and also pleaded the losses wdiich he had 
sustained in killed and wounded, both of wdiich excuses were 
untrue and unfounded. John Bierer. who was a member of 
my company, and is now living at Uniontown, Pa., and 
whose verification of the truth of this statement can be had 
any day, was on the day of the battle brigade w^agonmaster, 
in charge of the reserve artillery train of ammunition and 
had his wagons on the ground just where they were needed, 
and with plenty of ammunition from first to last. 

The following statements of facts quoted from a letter 
received by me from Comrade Bierer are in his own words 
and I will say that this statement exactly coincides with the 
facts as narrated by him to me at Antietam a few days after 
the l^attle : "I was brigade wagonmaster at the time. Had 
charge of ninety-six wagons loaded full of ammunition for 
musketry, ritles and cannon when we left Washington, D. C, 
on the 8th and Rockville on the TOth of September, 1862, for 
the campaign in Maryland. Was at the foot of South 
Mountain on the morning of the 12th in time for the battle, 
with my entire train of wagons. Unloaded two wagons to 
supply Meade's Division before you w^ent up the mountain, 
and sent one with small and two with heavy ammunition to 
sui)ply the troops ou the left of the pike. The next morn- 
ing with ninety-one full and hve empty or partlv emptied 
wagons, we started about nine o'clock, moving to the left of 
the pike, crossed South Mountain, and on the evening of the 
1 6th at dusk crossed Sharpsburg bridge and camped by the 



General McClellaiid. 55 

old mill to the left of the Williamsport pike. The next 
morning early 1 sent two wagons up the pike to Sumner, 
two crossed the bridge, turned to the left and went to supply 
Hooker and the reser\'es and four wagons w^ere sent to Burn- 
side. In all during the battles of South Mountain and An- 
tietam, thirteen wagons of ammunition were unloaded, or 
partly so, leaving me eighty-three wagons of ammunition 
untouched." Now when w^e recollect that all the divisions 
of the army had trains of ammunition of their own in addi- 
tion to this reserve artillery train, it is easily seen from this 
detailed statement of Captain Bierer that there w-as no lack 
of ammunition in the Army of the Potomac at any time dur- 
ing the Maryland campaign. As to McClelland's other ex- 
cuses, viz. : The losses his army had sustained and his de- 
sire to enable the rebels to bury their dead, I will say that 
the rebels met with losses also and were not being reinforced 
as was McClelland's army. And as for the dead, a dead rebel 
could lie unburied just as long as a dead Yank. I was in line 
in front of the cornfield when the order to cease firing was 
received and I well remember the dismay and consternation 
it produced among the rank and file. 'AVhy do we cease 
firing when we have the enemy whipped ?" and 'AVe can 
drive the whole rel3e] army into the Potomac," and kindred 
ejaculations were heard on every side, but a continuation of 
the conflict meant the destruction of Lee's army and Mc- 
Clelland's only possible way to avoid this contingency and 
save the rebel cause with w'hich he secretly sympathized was 
to order a sudden cessation of hostilities. I also met and 
talked with new soldiers the evening after the battle who 
had not had a chance to discharge a gun at the enemy that 
day, and I know, and thousands of other soldiers who par- 
ticipated in that fight know, that reinforcements were ar- 
riving in large numbers during that eventful day. 

In common with the rank and file of the eastern army, 
up to this time, I had been an enthusiastic McClelland ad- 
mirer, but the facts above stated, taken in connection with 
his stupid conduct of the Peninsular campaign set the seal 



56 



Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldom. 



upon General Geo. B. McClelland as the chief traitor of the 
century, and if any confirmation of this opinion as to his 
character were necessary, it was furnished by the general 
solicitude exhibited on the part of the rebels at Richmond, 
on his behalf, which I observed while a prisoner of war there. 




CHAPTER VI. 
Camp Scenes. 

After the Battle of Antietam our command went into 
camp in an orchard near a brick house which stood on an 
elevation, and just below it, in the valley, gushed one of the 
largest flowing springs it was ever my good fortune to see. 
As Gaskell was pitching his tent in the orchard, in making 
the necessary excavation, he unearthed an arm, and grasp- 
ing the hand as he might that of a living comrade, exclaimed, 
"Hello, old fellow, how do you do, how is it down there any- 
how ?" and then calmly proceeded with his work. A short 
distance below the spring were some buildings which the 
rebels were occupying as hospitals. Out in the open air was 
an operating table, where amputating was being performed. 
Arms and legs by the cart load had been dissevered, some of 
which had been buried, and it was one of those which Gas- 
kell had disturbed while engaged in pitching his tent. 

There were large numbers of sightseers and relic hunt- 
ers visiting the battle field at this time, and some gruesome 
sights they saw, I can assure you. As I was going to the 
spring for water on one occasion, the surgeon was preparing 
to amputate a leg, and as I halted to observe the operation, 
a civilian who had coine to see the sights, was also standing 
near, and as the rebel surgeon with his sleeves rolled up, 
like a butcher in the shambles, displayed his shining scalpel, 
and with one sweeping stroke, severed the muscles to the 
bone, around the entire circumference of the limb. At this 
sight down went the civilian in a dead faint. I dashed the 
contents of my canteen in his face ; he revived, but w4th an 
expression of horror upon his face which I shall never for- 
get, exclaimed, "My God, this is terrible," and hurriedly left 
the place. Now gentle reader I imagine hearing you say 
how much gentler and more kindlv must have been the heart 



58 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldotn. 

of this civilian than that of the man Gaskell. Not so. The 
one was inured to such sights, and the other was not ; that 
was all the difference. Probably the man Gaskell would 
have rushed to the rescue of a suffering- person just as readily 
and as sympathetically as the other. There seems to be an 
innate disposition in the human mind to adapt itself to its en- 
vironments, and to make the best of its surroundings. The 
soldier knows from the nature of his calling that he will be 
called upon to see and undergo sufferings which are not com- 
mon to civil life, and by a merciful provision of nature or 
Providence, he undergoes the transition almost imper- 
ceptibly. 

But it is truly remarkable into what risks and adventures 
curiosity will lead the average human being. One day a 
young man with his family, consisting of his wafe and one 
child, a bright little girl, drove onto the field, which was 
thickly strewn with the debris of battle, and wishing to carry 
ofif some memento of his visit to the scene of the recent car- 
nage, he gathered up two or three unexploded conical shells, 
not dreaming that there was danger lurking there, placed 
them in his wagon and drove away. But, alas ! had not 
gone far when the jostling of the vehicle over the rough 
ground brought the shells into contact, and a fearful explo- 
sion followed, which resulted in the death of the three per- 
sons, and the annihilation of the team and wagon. 

Upon another occasion, while standing upon the hill 
side on this field, in company with comrade Dave Ritchie, 
we observed a civilian trudging along with his arms full of 
shells. Ritchie called to him, saying, "Say, mister, if you 
knew what those things were you would not be carrying 
them that way." The countryman replied, "Oh, I know 
what they are," but just as he was speaking one of them fell 
from his arms and went rolling down the hillside. It had 
gained considerable momentum in its course when it came 
in contact with a stone. It let loose with a bang that waked 
the echoes. It w^as amusing to see with what tenderness 
that fellow placed the remaining shells on the bosom of 



Amusements in Camp. 59 

Mother Earth, and tiptoed away from them, as if he feared 
his footfalls might set them off. He let no grass grow under 
his feet until he had put a safe distance between him and 
those innocent-looking elongated globes. 

Soon after the episode of the shells, another of my com- 
rades and myself concluded we would vary the monotony of 
camp life a little by securing a ''pass" and going a fishing. 
We put our plan into operation and proceeded to the river 
bank and there, James Axton, (for that was his name), and 
I made ourselves as comfortable as possible under the cir- 
cumstances. We had been fairly successful in persuading 
a number of members of the "finny tribe" to leave the watery 
element and join our soldier band : this we did by hook anil 
not by crook, of course. But what I w'as about tO' tell you 
W'as that just opposite where we were doing the fishing act 
stood a log cabin from which proceeded a w^oman on horse- 
back and I observed that she headed her horse in the direc- 
tion of where the rebel army was encamped. It awoke my 
suspicions, and I called Axton's attention to the fact, but he 
laughed at my fears, and to show that he had no misgivings 
as to our security from danger, pulled off his shoes and wad- 
ing to a rock at some distance from shore, quietly seated 
himself and proceeded w'ith his fishing. I, meantime, had 
gone down the river some two or three hundred yards and 
was also busily engaged watching for bites, when all at once 
biff — bang from the cabin came a volley aimed at poor Jim 
on the rock, and the way the bullets made the water fiy 
around that stone was a caution, and Jim said he wouldn't 
have cared so much about their shooting into the water and 
scaring the fish but he thought they were too careless about 
their shooting, for some of their bullets tore holes in his 
clothes, and he said they might have accidentally hit him. 
Sharing Jim's misgivings about the carelessness of their 
shooting, we both beat a hasty retreat, f.eaving fish, shoes 
and all, we climbed that river bank and took refuge in the 
bed of a canal the banks of which had lieen cut by the rebels 
for fear it might be of some service to the Union forces, in 



6o Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldoni. 

case it should fall into their hands, as it did happen to do. 
Well when we found ourselves secure from the fire of the 
enemy in the old canal hed w^e concluded to keep an eye on 
those Johnnies for awhile and see if we could not slip back 
and secure our shoes and the fish which we had left in our 
hurry to move, hut we concluded, after watching for some 
time, that discretion was the better part of valor, so we re- 
turned to camp, provoked enough to remember that we had 
not only failed to secure the coveted mess of fish, but also 
to be obliged to leave behind us our shoes. However, next 
day Axton returned for his shoes and strange to say found 
them where he had left them, and brought them off in 
triumph, and furthermore he had taken his "gun" with him 
when he went for his shoes, and by way of revenge, he aimed 
and shot at every living thing he could see roundabout that 
cabin. 

I must tell you something in regard to this brave, gener- 
ous soldier boy. James Axton. His history is both singular 
and pathetic. His father was a glassblower bv avocation, 
residing at Brownsville. Pa., where James was born. Dur- 
ing the year i860, v.^ork being slack in his home town, the 
elder Axton took a trip down the Mississippi River on a coal 
boat, was taken sick and sent to the Marine Hospital at 
Memphis, Tenn., for treatment. The war breaking out 
about the time of his recovery, he was conscripted and placed 
for serxice in the rebel general. Van Dorn's army. On the 
other hand, Jim, true to the old flag, enlisted in the Union 
army. Jim told me how matters stood, and I asked him 
what he would do in case he met his father on the field of 
battle. "Why, I would lake him prisoner of course." said 
Jim. His father, after serving for nearly two years in the 
rebel army, effected his escape and succeeded in making his 
w^ay to the Union lines, where he at once enlisted in the 
Army of the Union. Meanwhile Jim was taken prisoner by 
the rebels, and sent to Salisbury, where after suffering from 
starvation, exposure and nakedness until reduced to a mere 
skeleton, and with certain death staring him in the face, he 



James Axtoii. 6i 

appealed to Sergeant Janies Eberhart as to what he should 
do, (Eberhart was a member of the same company.) Axton 
told him that he had a mind to enlist in the rebel army, and 
take the chances of making his escape to onr lines, for said 
he, "to remain here a few more weeks means death to me." 
The sergeant said to him, "You must do as you think best." 
So after deliberating upon the matter for a short time, he 
concluded to enlist under the Stars and Bars. "Oh, the mis- 
creant !" I imagine T hear you exclaim. Just a moment be- 
fore you pass judgment upon the man. Jim Axton was a 
brave and devoted soldier, enduring the hardships of the 
march and the camp without a murmur ; gallant in battle, 
scorning death on the ensanguined field, faithful on guard and 
picket, ever wakeful and watchful for his country's honor 
and safety ; all this when himself. But now starving and 
naked, weakened in mind and body, with no hope of escape 
except in the way indicated. The love of life, which is innate 
in every human being, comes in upon him, like a whelming 
flood and carries hini before it ; he enlists, taking the 
oath of allegiance to the Southern Confederacy, believing 
that the end justified the means : but whether he died from 
the effects of his treatment at the hands of the rebels or in 
trying to escape from service in the Confederate army, none 
of his friends ever knew, but that was the last ever heard of 
James Axton. 

It will be remembered that the Battle of Antietam was 
fought on the 17th of September, 1862. The fall rains com- 
ing on soon after, many of the dead were literally washed 
from their shallow graves, and their remains left to fester and 
decay, exposed to the action of the elements on the very 
ground wdiich a few^ short months before their heroic deeds 
had aided to make historic ; such is the fate of war. After 
remaining in camp for nearly three months at Antietam our 
command, with others, was ordered forward to Fredericks- 
burg, Va. We crossed the Potomac at Berlin. On arriv- 
ing at Belle Plains. I had the honor of being detailed as guard 
at General Reynolds' headquarters. While thus engaged, I 



62 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldom. 

made the acquaintance of his cook, who was one of the most 
grotesque darkies ever met with. He w^as known by the 
name of "Ben, the Monkey Turner." The following is his 
history as detailed by himself. He was the slave and per- 
sonal attendant of the colonel of a South Carolina regiment 
known as the "Monkey Turners." This command was or- 
ganized at Charleston, S. C, and like many other untried 
w^arriors, had indulged in a large amount of boasting as to 
what they purposed doing when once they got a chance at 
the Yankees on the battle field. Each one of them would 
slay at least five of the Northern mudsills, that being the 
euphonious title given by the Southerners to the people of 
the North, and when that feat at arms was accomplished 
they were to return to their native city and enjoy a Christmas 
dinner. And, by the way, they had heard of the Pennsyl- 
vania Buck Tails, and they boasted that if they ever got a 
swipe at that command they would simply wipe them from 
olT the face of the earth. Well they got the chance, for at 
the second Battle of Bull Run it so happened that the 
Monkey Turners were pitted squarely against the Buck 
Tails, and the Lord have mercy on their souls, for the Buck 
Tails, with their seven shooting Spencer rifles, almost anni- 
hilated the regiment. Ben's master was killed, and as Ben 
was going onto the field to try to bear off the body of the 
fallen officer, he chanced to meet three or four of the Mon- 
key Turners running for dear life to the rear. Now Ben 
thought, those fellows are headed for Charleston for that 
Christmas dinner which he had heard so much talk about, 
so he said to them, 'Ts youn's all gwine back to Charleston 
to git yo' Christmas dinner ?" One of the number stopped 
running long enough to say to Ben, "Shut up, you black son 
of a b , we's all dead but fo'teen." Ben was taken prison- 
er by the Buck Tails, and (General Reynolds installed him 
cook at hea(l(|uarters. where he presided with great dignity, 
and ])rovc(l not only to be an efficient cuisine artist, but also 
an unfailing source of amusement to all who came in contact 
with him, as he had an exhaustless fund of funny stories 



Pete and the Snakes. 



63 



locked up in his black cranium, from which he was ever able 
and willing to draw for the entertainment of his friends. 

One night, as we were lounging about the camp fire, 
Ben broke out laughing, and we recognized it at once as a 
precursor of a story, and two or three of us at the same 
moment exclaimed, "'Well Ben, what is it ?" "Oh, I'se jes' 
thinkin' 'bout Brudder Pete." "Well, what is it about 
Brother Pete ? let us have it." "Well I'le des tell yer, 
Down dar ner Charleston dar was a niggar libed an we all 
done call him Brudder Pete case he so ligus, and so lubbin' 




Snakes. 



an 'fectionate to de sisterns. We all hab bush meetins down 
dar ebery yar, an' Brudder Pete he dun alwas speak at dem 
metins an' de sisturns all tink dare ain't nobody like Brudder 
Pete. Arter one of des meetins I dun seed Brudder Pete 
snekin off trough de woods with de putist wench of de hole 
meetin' and I des foler em. Arter a while dey come to a log 
an' Brudder Pete, who was a stuttering nigga, he say,se-se-set 
down yer, Sis-Sis-Sister Ma-Ma-Mary mi-mi lub so Brudder 
Pete can talk to-to-to you.' 'Oh, no, Brudder Pete I'se feard 
ob snakes,' says Sister Mary, so dey jes mosey along a little 
furder and den dev cum to whar dar war a grapevine gro ober 



64 Incidents and Adventures in Rcbeldom. 

a l)usli. and niek a nice shady place, den Brudder Pete, he 
dun mek a seat 'mong the leal^es, den he says, 'S-s-sit down 
yer, S-S-S-Sister M-M-Mary, mi kib, dar's no s-snakes yar.' 
Mary dun sot down and den I'riidder Pete des tro he arms 
'round Sister Mary an' lie gib her a kis dat jes smak like de 
cracin' ob a plate. Den she say, 'Oh. oh, Brudder Pete dat 
am so sweet,' and Brudder Pete say, 'Su-su-sweet to me Ma- 
Ma-Mary, mi lub, it am mity good,' and he was jis' gwine to 
gib her nudder smak wen I hollered snakes. Good Lord if 
you seed dem ar niggars git outen dar an tar fru dem dar 
w^oods like 'zif de Debbil hisself is arter um, yo' would jis 
kil yo' self larfin." While it is impossible to put upon paper 
the peculiar effect given to a story by the idiom of the African 
race, yet it may show to the reader how the light of mirth 
and laughter sought the heart of the soldier, even when his 
surroundings were gloomy and forbidding. 

About this time there were very stringent orders pro- 
mulgated against foraging, and woe to the fellow taken in 
the act. He would be escorted to the general's headquar- 
ters and caused to stand on the head of a barrel, with the 
stolen property, whatever it might l^e, placed upon his 
shoulder, and there under guard he w^ould be obliged to 
stand for a longer or shorter time, according to the enormity 
of the offense, to be guyed by his comrades. One day one 
of the boys having a longing for some veal bought a calf 
from a planter and paid him for it by giving him an order on 
the quartermaster, taking a receipt from the planter for the 
same. He boldly led his calf up in front of the general's 
tent, and there deliberately drawing his sheath-knife, cut its 
throat. Now the general, who. as is well known was a great 
stickler for strict discipline, thinking he had caught a for- 
ager, red-handed, in the overt act, called a guard, who 
placed the man under arrest, but the soldier assured the gen- 
eral that he had purchased the calf, and in proof of his as- 
sertion, showed the planter's receipt. Of course that settled 
it, and the soldier was released. But the fun was not yet 
ended, as the next day the planter put in his appearance at 



Foraging at F^'edericksburg. 



65 



the general's tent demanding payment for his calf on the 
order given him by the soldier. Then there was music in 
the air, but it was not of a devotional nature either, but the 
calf was eaten, and the general could not find the soldier 
who had tricked him, and the case was out of court, but still 
furnished lots of amusement for the boys. 

Cyrus Eislie was easily the most wily, crafty and suc- 
cessful bummer and forager in Company G, if not in the en- 
tire regiment. He would "accumulate" anything from sut- 
ler checks to mules. I have myself seen him abstract checks 






^>f^' ^ 







SojER FoTCH Back Dat Goose. 

from the drawer of the sutler's desk while the sutler was writ- 
ing on top of it, and then have the imblushing gall to buy 
goods and pay for them with the stolen checks. On the out- 
skirts of Fredericksburg, while Eislie was roaming around 
looking for something to "accumulate," he discovered near 
a house an old goose setting on a nest of eggs in a laudable 
endeavor to hatch. Sneaking up he grabbed the goose by 
the neck and started on a dead run for camp. Just at this 
time a lusty negro wench made her appearance at the door 
and seeing Eislie and the goose scooting across the field, 
stopped long enough to yell, "Massa, Massa. White man 



66 Incide^its and Adventures in Rebeldom. 

done steal de old goose," and then started in a hot chase 
after Eislie with "Massa" a close second. The wench kept 
yelling, "Sojer, sojer, fotch back dat goose; fotch back dat 
goose ; dar goes de last goose on de plantation and how's I 
gwine to hatch dem aigs widout a goose." Owing to the 
resistance of the goose with its powerful wings to being 
towed along in this manner, Eislie soon disco\^ered he was 
being rapidly overtaken by his pursuers and that the out- 
cries of the wench had been heard by a mounted patrol who 
also joined in the chase. Eislie therefore was compelled to 
release the goose and he narrowly escaped capture by jump- 
ing a nearby fence and taking to the bushes ; but it was cer- 
tainly a laughable and exciting goose chase to those who 
saw it. 




CHAPTER VII. 

The Night Before the Battle of Fredericksburg — 

A Dramatic Incident. 

"Time rolls his ceaseless course ; the race of yore, 
Who danced our infancy upon their knee. 
And told our marvelling boyhood legends store, 
Of their strange ventures, happed by land or sea, 
How are they blotted from the things that be ! 
How few, all weak, and withered of their force. 
Wait on the verge of dark eternity, 
Like stranded wrecks, the tide returning hoarse. 
To sweep them from our sight ! Time rolls his ceaseless 
course." 

Who that survives of the Army of the Potomac, that 
witnessed the night bombardment of Fredericksburg, can 
ever forget the terrific grandeur of the sight, while our guns 
were hurling the tokens of Yankee retribution upon the trai- 
torous city, in the shape of shot and shell, where they crashed 
and fell like the wrath of God on Sodam and Gomorrah. 
The northern heavens were illumed by the glories of an 
aurora borealis which shot its lances of purple fire, and 
spread its banners of flame athwart the sky. rendering the 
scene one of the most awful sublimity. It surely was a 
sight which will live in the memory of all who participated in 
that unavailing fight, until their dying day. To think of all 
the unrequited valor, and the precious lives which were 
snuffed out on that bloody field, is truly appalling ; for 
never since the day when arbitrament by the sv/ord was in- 
troduced among nations, did men behave more splendidly, 
or fight more gallantly than did they. Burnside hurled his 
valorous columns six successive times against the enemy's 
works, when the first assault demonstrated, beyond a doubt 
that the enemy's position was impregnable, and yet the holo- 
caust went on. and thousands of patriotic lives were ruth- 



68 Incidents and AdvetiUires in Rebeldom. 

lessly sacrificed to somebody's stupid blundering. And what 
renders it more obvious that an awful blunder in the order 
of the battle had been made, was the fact that while the 
frightful carnage was being enacted on Mary's Heights, 
on the right. The enemy's lines had been pierced 
and had the movement been properly supported, in- 
stead of a crushing defeat, Fredericksburg would have 
been a glorious victory for the Union army. General 
Meade's command carried the enemy's lines in a gallant 
charge under promise of timely support of General Franklin's 
division, but through some dereliction the promised succor 
was not forthcoming at the supreme moment, and the po- 
sition so heroically gained, had to be abandoned. A pa- 
thetic and never to be forgotten episode occurred here. In 
the charge of Meade's Corps, a beloved nephew of the gen- 
eral had fallen, pierced by rebel bullets. His dead body was 
secured and placing it in front of him on his horse, and as 
with his precious burden he was following his decimated col- 
umns as they were forced from the field, for lack of the prom- 
ised aid, he chanced to meet General Wheaton of Franklin's 
Corps. Meade in an agony of grief and rage at the useless 
sacrifice of his men, and covered with blood from his 
nephew's wounds, and with tears streaming from his eyes, 
he drew his sword to kill Wheaton for not moving his column 
to his support at the proper time, and was only prevented 
from so doing by the interference of members of his staff. 
What a dramatic scene. One worthy the brush of a painter, 
and yet in so far as I know, it has not been mentioned by any 
writer on the field of Fredericksburg. 

The gallant Bayard of the cavalry was killed by a shell, 
and many company and line officers of the Reserves were also 
killed or wounded. Our total loss in this battle was one 
thousand eight hundred and forty-two men. My own com- 
pany was left under the command of the fifth sergeant, and 
the regiment was left under the command of Captain Lemon, 
and in fact the ranks of the division were so depleted that the 
entire command was sent back to Alexandria to be recruited 
up and reorganized. 



Biirnside Stick-in-the-Mud. 69 

Every soldier who participated in the tiresome, ener- 
vating and distressing march known as the "Burnside stick- 
in-the-mud" will remember its hardship, exposure and suf- 
fering until his dying day. From start to finish the windows 
of heaven were wide open and a cold rain incessantly, day and 
night, beat upon the heads of the devoted soldiers. The 
roadway was speedily converted into a quagmire in which 
the wagons were buried up to their beds and the mules drop- 
ped down in their harness and suffocated in the mud. The 
troops floundered along both sides of the quagmire in mud 
from ankle to knee deep, their destination being the fords of 
the Rappahannock, and their design, to flank the rebels out 
of Fredericksburg. Owing to the severity of the weather 
the movement was a complete failure. The order was coun- 
termanded before the objective point was reached and the 
troops were returned to their old camps. The rebels were 
informed of this fiasco and on the picket jeered and taunted 
our men over this miserable failure. 

The screaming farce, "Burnside Stick-in-the-Mud," 
was dramatized from the original performance as given by 
Burnside by Mr. Bud Gaskell, who was a participant in the 
first performance. Gaskell Ijeing the originator of the play, 
was also the star actor, and as he was a whole troupe in him- 
self needed no assistance. The literary merits of this work, 
I am sorry to say, were not of a high order, consisting as 
they did principaHy of ejaculations and exclamatitons of vio- 
lent disgust, interspersed frequently with a liberal variety of 
cuss words that were far more expressive than elegant. His 
wardrobe for a performance while not grand or expensive 
was at least singular and attractive. It consisted of a bat- 
tered plug hat and a ragged coat, if he could get them, if not 
his uniform as a soldier was amply sufficient, as his per- 
formance was always gratis and therefore popular. With 
pants rolled high above his army brogans, disclosing his 
hairv calves, and clothed in his ragged coat with the battered 
hat set at an acute angle on his unkempt head, he would go 
flounderine throueh and fallins: into imasfinarv nuid holes. 



yo Incidents and Adventures in Rebcldom, 

seemingly scraping and \vii)ing- mud from his person, all the 
while swearing and uttering exclamations of disgust and at 
every step emitting a sucking sound exactly imitating the 
noise made b}' withdrawing the foot from deep mud. When 
to this was added his grimaces, contortions and groans it 
altogether made a scene that was inexpressibly ludicrous 
and laughable. Being on patrol duty in Alexandria one day 
I saw a crowd gathering at the corner of King and Henry 
streets and approached to see what was going on. A show- 
man had rented a room and had on exhibition a large Ana- 
conda and a blowhard posted at the door was enlarging on 
the wonderful sights within, something after the following 
manner : "Here's the greatest living Anaconda in the 
world, twenty-seven feet, two inches long and weighing one 
hundred pounds. Caught in the wilds of Central Africa by 
three black natives. By the kind treatment of his master 
he has become perfectly docile. You can stick your finger in 
his mouth and he will not bite you. Step this way. ladies 
and gentlemen, and see this great living curiosity for the 
small sum of ten cents." Directly Gaskell approached the 
showman and an animated conversation took place between 
the two. I found that Gaskell wanted to be admitted to 
perform with the big snake but the showman refused. Gas- 
kell remarked that he would bust up his old fraud of a show 
and going over to the opposite corner began to cry in mock- 
cry of the showman : "Here's the only living Anna Conder. 
She was caught running wild in the lowlands of old Virginia 
by three black niggers. By the kind treatment of her cap- 
tors she has become perfectly docile. You can kiss her black 
ebony lips and she will not bite you. Step this way, ladies 
and gentlemen and without money and without price see the 
great 'Burnside Stick-in-the-Mud,' after which Anna may 
easily l)e seen in the audience." He then began his per- 
formance as described, and in a very short time he had an 
immense motley crowd of whites and negroes collected 
around him that completely blocked lioth streets. The 
showman was left without a single patron and he finally came 



Gaskell as a?i Actor. 71 

to Bud and gave him two dollars and a half to go away. Gas- 
kell, after having a good time and investing a portion of his 
money in bug juice, returned to camp hilarious. 

On reaching this city we were moved out to the east 
a mile or so and having been supplied with Sibley tents, es- 
tablished camp. These tents were more roomy, commodi- 
ous and aristocratic than the little dog tents we had so long 
occupied and from which the boys used to stick their heads 
and bark like a dog from his kennel. The irrepressible Gaskell 
was now in his element and soon made his presence known 
both in city and camp. One day he came to our tent about 
half drunk and amused himself climbing the center pole and 
falling to the ground and tripping and pitching headlong 
over straws. Whilst engaged in his comical performances 
one of the numerous demi monde which infested Alexandria 
at that time, made her appearance in camp. Gaskell ap- 
proached her and pulling his flask of whisky gave her a drink 
and conducting her in front of our tent induced her to sing 
the following local song parodied on "When Johnny comes 
Marching Home :"' 

In eighteen hundred and sixty-one. 

Skewbaul. Skewbaul. 
In eighteen hundred and sixty-one. 

Skewbaul says I. 
In eighteen hundred and sixty-one 
This cruel war it was begun. 
And we'll all drink stone blind. Johnny fill up the bowl sir. 

We met a misfortune at Bull Run. 

Skewbaul. Skewbaul. 
We met a misfortune at Bull Run. 

Skewbaul says I. 
We met a misfortune at Bull Run 
And all skeedaddled for Washington, 
And we'll all drink stone blind, Johnny fill up the bowl sir. 



72 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldom. 

The Marshall house it is the spot. 

Skewl-)anl. Skewbaiil. 
The Marshall house it is the spot. 

Skewbaul says L 
The Marshall house it is the spot 
Where Colonel Ellsworth he was shot, 
And we'll all drink stone blind, Johnny fill up the bowl sir. 

The slave pen it's as cold as ice. 

Skewbaul. Skewbaul. 
The slave pen it's as cold as ice. 

Skewbaul says I. 
The slave pen it's as cold as ice. 
Get up in the morning full of lice, 
And we'll all drink stone blind, Johnny fill up the bowl sir. 

I bought a rooster for fifty cents. 

.Skewbaul. Skewbaul. 
I bought a rooster for fifty cents. 

Skewbaul says I. 
I bought a rooster for fifty cents 
But the cockadoodle flew over the fence, 
And we'll all drink stone blind, Johnny fill up the bowl sir. 

After singing this doggerel ditty she stepped into a tent 
and siezing a tin cup from a shelf, containing almost a half 
pint of commissary whisky, she drank it down with a gulp. 
Well she was simply paralyzed in a short time and the officer 
of the guard had to call an ambulance and send her oft' to the 
slave pen. Gaskell, after tripping up a peddler and securing 
some apples started in the direction of the colonel's quarters 
falling many times on the way over imaginary straws and 
twigs. A mounted officer, seated on. his horse was engaged 
in an animated conversation with the colonel in front of his 
tent when Gaskell slipped up and seating himself on the 
horse's hock joints under his tail went to munching his ap- 
ples amid many comical grimaces and contortions. The 
colonel and the officer were entirely unaware of the monkey 



Duck Hunting. 73 

show being perform e^:! under the horse's tail until a laughing, 
jeering crowd had collected, when the colonel discovered 
him, but Gaskell scooted without waiting to hear any re- 
marks from the colonel. 

About three miles above our camp was a small lagoon, 
or bayou, that put into the land from the Potomac, which 
was much frequented by wild ducks, as were the swamps 
bordering the river. Several of the comrades had made in- 
effectual efforts to shoot them with their army rifles but the 
Springfield was a complete failure for duck killing and they 
had their trouble for their pains. 

Baer, who was much given to self laudation and praise, 
went to the bayou early one morning, stealthily approached 
the shore, and seeing several ducks, fired and by accident 
killed one of them. He returned to camp with his prize, 
triumphant and greatly elated over his success, and after 
plucking and nicely dressing it, he placed it in a mess pan 
ready for cooking and then proceeded to the camp fire where 
a number of the comrades were congregated and began to 
blow about the accuracy of his aim and his expertness as a 
hunter. After allowing him to blow for a while one of the 
men said it was probably a wooden decoy duck he had shot 
as he had seen a number of them down there the other day. 
This riled Baer and he declared that all the other men who 
had been down there after ducks were chumps and pot-hunt- 
ers that could not hit a barn door with a ritie, and therefore 
they were jealous of him. but he continued, "I'm going to 
have duck for breakfast in the morning and you fellows can 
stand around with watering mouths and get a smell while 
you see me eat it." Richie said, "Baer, if I was you I would 
not blow so much about that duck. Somebody might pick 
its bones for you before morning." ''Oh," said Baer, 'T'm 
not a bit afraid of that. I would like to see the men in this 
company that is smart enough to steal that duck." Richie 
said no more and Baer, after placing his precious mess pan 
at his head, went to bed and to sleep. Marching orders for 
the next day were issued late that night and Richie was de- 



74 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldom. 

tailed to cook the meat and have it ready for issue to the 
men in the morning. About midnight Richie went to the 
back of Baer's tent and silently raising the canvas reached 
in and abstracted the duck which was placed upon the fire, 
cooked to a turn and devoured by himself and comrade. 
The bones, after being trimmed, were returned to the mess 
pan and it was replaced at Baer's head without disturbing 
his slumbers. Baer upon discovering the loss of his duck, 
raised a howl that was pitched in an altogether different tone 
and tune to the song of fulsome self praise he had been sing- 
ing the previous evening, but as the laugh was on him and 
Richie was decidedly handy with his fists, Baer had to stand 
the gibes of the entire company. On the march and for days 
afterward in camp he would be greeted with such ejacula- 
tions as the following : "Who stole Baer's duck ?" "Who 
eat Baer's duck ?" and "Baer done swaller dat duck whole, T 
see de fedders on his upper lip," and "Baer, wy doan yo' pick 
dat duck meat outen yo' teef ?" This continual nagging be- 
came unbearable to Baer, and taking advantage of an order 
issued by the war department permitting infantry to re-enlist 
in the cavalry he left the company and joined that arm of 
the service. 

Jeremiah B. Jones and William R. Mitchell were two 
comrades belonging to Company G, of the Eighth, who were 
over six feet in height each. They were both naturally wag- 
gish and witty and overflowing with good humor. "Jerry" 
was long and rather thin of build, while "Bill" was both long 
and broad. As a number of us were lounging about the 
campfire one evening Bill said, "Jerry, where was you 
raised ?" Jerry answered. "Up in the mountains near the 
Virginia line." "Oh yes," said Bill, "I have heard of the 
place ; the whole township stands on edge and the boulders 
stick out the side like the warts on a toad's back." "Where 
was you raised. Bill ?" asked Jerry. "On Barren Run, near 
West Newton," replied Bill. "Oh yes," says Jerry, "the kill- 
deers go running over that district with a knapsack on their 
backs containing eight days' rations and tears of grief and 



Controversy of the Giants. 75 

despair falling from their eyes." "1 hear." said Bill, "that 
stock raisers in your township have to tie the sheep together 
by the tails and hang them over the rocks to pick the grass 
out of the crevices." "There is no stock on Barren Run," 
replied Jerry, "as they can't raise fodder enough there to feed 
a sick grasshopper through the winter." "The farmers of 
your township," said Bill, "have to shoot the wdieat under 
the stones with shot guns." "Well," replied Jerry, "the 
farmers of Barren Run have to mow with a razor and rake 
with a fine tooth comb." "It would no doubt be a healthy 
place to live in the mountains," said Bill, "if so many of your 
people were not injured in scraping their shins and killed h^ 
breaking their necks falling over the rocks." "Barren Run 
would also be a healthy place if so many of your people did 
not die of starvation while searching the barren fields with 
microscopes and field glasses to find dock and dandelion 
enough to make a mess of greens." "In your township." 
said Bill, "they always take dynamite along with the funerals 
to blast a hole big enough to hide the corpse in." "And in 
Barren Run all funerals are accompanied by a cart load of 
manure to throw in the grave to rot the corpse," answered 
Jerry. The controversy now ended amid the laughter of 
the hearers, with the honors about equal and the principals 
retired to their tents. The genial Mitchell bravely and nobly 
met his death on the bloody battle field at Fredericksburg, 
and the cheerful Jones perished in the prison hell at Salis- 
bury. Peace to their ashes. 

While our ranks were being recruited at Alexandria, 
small detachments from the regiment were placed along the 
line of the Orange and Alexandria railroad for its protection 
and guarding negroes and teams employed in getting out 
from the surrounding forests, large quantities of wood for 
the use of the army, and also timber to be used in <-he erec- 
tion of blockhouses. The w^hole of the country in this part 
of Virginia v/as overrun by guerrillas, and they were very- 
crafty and active, both day and night, and consequently we 
were obliged to exercise the utmost vigilance in guard and 



76 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldom. 

picket duty, and at best they had lis at a disadvantage for 
they were on tlieir native "heath," and knew perfectly every 
foot of the ground, and could ride fearlessly, where we were 
obliged to feel our way, but notwithstanding this fact, wc 
were always able to hold our own with them. Wild game 
was abundan^ in the woods of Fairfax County at this time, 
as it had not been disturbed much since the opening of hos- 
tilities, between the sections of the country ; men had been 
too busy in hunting men to waste their energies ou smaller 
game, hence game birds, turkeys, deer, foxes, rabbits and 
sc|uirrels, had multiplied exceedingly, but the fellow who 
had the hardihood to take to the woods in quest of game 
was quite sure to become himself the quarry before the hunt 
was ended. But the indomitable Richie one day sighted 
what he supposed were two fine wild turkeys, and being a 
dead shot, he maneuvered until he got within range, and fir- 
ing brought one of the coveted birds to the ground, but im- 
agine his chagrin when gathering in his prey to discover it 
to be a buzzard only. He seemed to relieve his disgust for 
that particular kind of game by a flow of language which 
was more remarkable for energy than elegance, and his day 
dream of feasting on turkey was dissipated for that time at 
least. A very singular incident occurred near camp one 
morning as a gang of negroes were going to their work in 
the woods, lliey came upon a fox lying asleep under a tree, 
and being confused 1)y its sudden awakening, it dashed into 
a hollow log which was lying close at hand. The negroes 
clubbed it to death, brought it into camp in the evening, 
cooked and feased off its carcass. I believe this the first and 
only instance I ever knew of a crafty Sir Reynard being 
caugnt napping. One of the most ])eculiar and distinctive 
wild fruits of this section of the United States is the persim- 
mon. They grow in great abundance in most of the South- 
ern states, and are very toothsome, especially in the late 
autunui and winter, when they fall from the trees, and l)e- 
come food both for man and beast. I have gathered them 
from the snow under the trees, in the month of February, 



Original Bean Bake. 77 

and they were delicious, b.aving passed through a candying- 
process in their own sweet juices. They are very nutritious 
and the persimmon tree becomes a snare and a dehision to 
the rabbit, where in winter he resorts to feast upon the fahen 
fruit and thus he falls an easy prey to the negroes, who are 
well aware of his weakness for the succulent fruit. The per- 
simmon is utilized to some extent also in the manufacture 
of an intoxicant known to the natives as persimmon beer. 
The following was the formula : The fruit is first mixed 
with wheat bran or middlings, dampened, made into large 
cakes, or pones, and baked in a Dutch oven, and when de- 
siried for use, the pones are placed in a keg or other tight 
vessel and cold water poured over them, and as soon as fo- 
mentation takes place, the beverage is ready for use. 

At the station a<- which we were doing service, (I have 
forsrotten the name, however, I think it was the first station 
out of Alexandria, south on the Orange railroad), we had 
very comfortable quarters, but as we were obliged to escort 
to the woods and guard the men composing the timber con- 
tingent, we were at first unable to get a warm meal at dinner, 
but at length we hit upon a scheme which enabled us to 
overcome this difficulty, and it worked like a charm. This 
was the device : Holes about two feet deep and sufficiently 
large in circumference to nicely admit a camp kettle, were 
dug in the clay soil, then the first thing upon arising in the 
morning a rousing fire was started in and over these holes, 
and the result would be that by the time we had our break- 
fasts, the holes in the ground would be hot, so we would 
just insert our camp kettles, (all of which were provided with 
metallic covers), into the holes in the ground, first having 
filled the kettles with beans, having a liberal chunk of pic- 
kled mess pork smothered in their midst, then we cov- 
ered the kettles over, with the hot embers left from the morn- 
ing fire, and on coming in at noon time, there would be our 
pork and beans, done to a turn, and these supplemented by 
hot coffee and hardtack, made a meal fit for a king. At least 
it would fill the achine void 1)eneath a soldier bov's blouse. 



78 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldom. 

One (lav while at this we were permitted to see what looked 
for a time as thoiig-h it might prove a fearful catastrophy, but 
reallv ended in a laughable episode. There was standing on 
the track at the station a train of flat cars, loaded with wood 
ready to pull out, when around the curve came thundering 
a train from Culpepper. This train was made up of box 
cars, filled with soldiers, some of whom discovered that a rear 
end collision was inevitable, and gave the alarm, and of 
course every fellow was intent on saving his own life, and of 
course they concluded that to jump was the only w^ay out of 
a bad scrape, and jump they did, one after another, head- 
long, from the car doors into the bushes which lined the 
track. In their flight through the air they resembled a 
drove of giant frogs, leaping from the bank of a mill pond 
into the water. The trains collided with considerable force, 
but aside from the scratches the boys received from jumping 
into the bushes, no one was hurt, and all survived to laugh 
over their needless alarm. However, soon after this, some 
two miles beyond our camp, the rebels succeeded in causing 
a wreck which proved disastrous. These rebels w^ere com- 
manded by a Johnny Bull who had recently come from Eng- 
land, named Rodgers, and had taken service in the rebel 
army, with the rank of captain. The command had one piece 
of artillery. This they had placed in a concealed position in 
the woods, then they drew the spikes wdiich held the rail 
in position, and attached a wire to the rail, and carry- 
ing the wire to their hiding place in the bush, were ready 
when the train approached to displace the rail by means of 
the wire. The train was derailed ; then they opened fire 
upon the wreck and sent a shot from their cannon crashing 
through the dome of the engine. Several of the cars also 
were somewhat shattered by their cannon shots, but the 
'"Yanks" were too many for them. Speedily forming, they 
charged into the w^oods, took the cannon, killed the captain 
and captured or killed all his men. 

While our command was engaged in doing this guard 
duty along the line of railroad, the headquarters of our regi- 



Loss of the Bakers'' Turkeys. 79 

ment was still at Alexandria, where we had constructed bar- 
racks near the government bakery. This was the largest 
bakery in the world. It converted into bread five hundred 
barrels of flour daily. The bread was baked in sheets of six- 
teen loaves, each loaf weighing sixteen ounces, and one loaf 
of soft bread, or in lieu thereof, twelve ounces of hardtack 
was the daily allowance for each man, when on full rations. 
One hundred thousand loaves were sent daily from this 
bakery to Culpepper for General Grant's army, and large 
gangs of negroes were constantly employed in carrying these 
sheets of bread and packing them in the cars, and although 
the distance was sixty miles to Culpepper, the bread reached 
them still warm from the ovens. While lying in barracks 
near Alexandria, a company mess was organized and our ex- 
cess rations were placed in a general fund with which to pur- 
chase extras for our tables. A negro cook was employed, 
and as he was an expert in piscatorial matters, and as all 
kinds of fish were plentiful and cheap, the baked shad and 
sturgeon which often graced our tables would have caused 
the mouth of an epicure to water. As the Yuletide drew 
near the bakers secured a fine lot of turkeys which were 
dressed and placed in the pans ready for roasting for their 
contemplated Christmas dinner, but "The best laid plans of 
mice and men gang aft aglee," and it is safe to say that the 
bakers dined, on that Christmas day, without turkey, as some 
of our wide awake boys had seen their way clear to confiscate 
the l)irds. And so it turned out that what was the bakers' 
loss was the soldiers' gain. But the bakers were wrothy and 
lodged complaint wath the colonel, and he of course ordered 
an immediate search of the quarters. Lieutenant Ramsey, of 
our company, being officer of the day we were promptly in- 
formed that an investigation was on, also we were given to 
understand the dreadful consequences of being found guilty 
of the offense charged. But some how the officer of the day 
on this occasion was a trifle slow in getting around to our 
quarters, but he finally arrived, and made the investigation, 
but not a turkey bone was discovered in or about our quar- 



8o 



Incidents and Advenftires in Rebeldom. 



ters, although there was a Hngering suspicion of an odor 
which might have been mistaken as arising from roast turkey. 
However, it would have been impossible to have convinced 
any of the boys of our mess that we did not have turkey for 
dinner that dav. 




CHAPTER VIII. 
Death of Sisler. 

While lying here the rebel hosts invaded the old Key- 
stone state and the Reserves immediately petitioned Gover- 
nor Ciirtin to have them sent to the defence of their native 
state. Two of the brigades were sent and tackled the John- 
nies at Little Round Top, some of the boys fighting in sight 
of their homes. The other brigade was held at Washington 
and Alexandria for the defence of those cities in case of rebel 
attack. On General Grant taking command of the Army of 
the Potomac, the Reserves, having recouped and refilled its 
ranks, rejoined the army at Culpepper, and participated in all 
the battles of Grant's subsequent campaigns. The series of 
battles which followed on Grant's assuming command, have 
been fully described by able writers, but a few incidents of 
personal observation during the campaign from Culpepper to 
Petersburg may be of interest to the general reader. 

While the death of a comrade always brought sadness to 
the hearts of those who survived, yet there seemed something 
inexpressibly sad in the death of one, who having endured the 
privations and hardships of the soldier life, until after the ex- 
piration of his term of enlistment, when his heart and mind 
were full of the joyful anticipation of the home-going. I say 
it seemed more distressing to see such a one fall just upon 
the eve as it were of his home-going, but how often it so 
happened, many a surviving comrade can attest. Among 
my messmates was one, a genial, great-hearted, brave young 
man whose name was John Sisler. Death had deprived him 
of both fatherly and motherly care ; for at a very early age 
he was left an orphan. He had found a home and had been 
carefully reared liy a family near Uniontown, Pa., by the 
name of Parshall. At Robinson's Farm, May 8th, 1864, 
where the field was skirted by a dense piece of woodland, the 



82 



Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldoni, 



timber of which was principaHy of pine, we had improvised a 
Hue of rifle pits from which our skirmishers would sally, ever 
and anon, to feel the strength and position of the enemy. I 
had observed, not far from our rifle pits, an oak, growing 
among the pines, which forked at about four or five feet from 
the ground, forming two trunks. In the rear of our position 
Avas an old field wdierein had sprung up clumps of bushes, 
here and there. On our withdrawal from our skirmish line 
at the margin of the woods, a rebel sharpshooter had located 




Death of Sisler. 

himself in a pine tree and from his perch among the branches 
amused himself by picking off such officers and men as had 
occasion to pass through the field. John Sisler and David 
Richie, the latter residing at Connellsville, Pa., were de- 
tailed to go out and kill him if possible. Accordingly they 
slipped over to the tinfl)er and Sisler took shelter behind the 
oak tree above mentioned, and while looking through the 
forks of the tree was discovered by the rebel, who fired, his 
bullet striking Sisler squarely between the eyes, killing him 



Death of Sisler. 83 

instantly. Richie, however, discovered where the rebel was 
located, and shot at him, but his gun was not of sufficient 
range to reach him, so he came back and reported the fact, 
whereupon two of the Buck Tails were dispatched with their 
Spencers to do the job, and they soon brought Johnnie Reb 
to terms by shooting him dead from his roost in the pine. 
We secured Sisler's body and digging a grave in the rear of 
our battle line, we sorrowfully laid him to rest, marking his 
lowly grave with a cracker box lid. Sisler was killed about 
two weeks after his term of enlistment had expired, but as 
the companies composing the regiment had entered the com- 
mand at dififerent dates, the time had been averaged, which 
resulted in detaining our company, to which Sisler belonged. 
a few days longer than we were justly entitled to- serve, with 
the result as above stated. Sisler's body was afterward re- 
moved to the National Cemeterv at Fredericksburo-. 




CHAPTER IX 

Incidents of the March. 

On the march to the North Anna River our rations had 
become exhausted, the commissary wagons not being- able to 
keep up with the marching cohmin, and consequently we suf- 
fered from hunger. Observing a farm house some two miles 
from the road in the edge of a wood, myself and three com- 
rades fell out of line and proceeded to it. hoping to get some 
food. A middle aged man dressed in a new suit of bluish 
gray, and two daughters met us at the door. The girls were 
crying and the three were badly scared at our arrival, but we 
assured them we would do them no harm and they became 
quite friendly. One of the girls who had an incipient mus- 
tache growing on her upper lip said, "I hope you all won't 
hurt that tanner over thar, (pointing to a house a mile away), 
he's nevah been to the war and says he'll nevah go either." 
We accused her of being in love with the tanner and she 
finally acknowledged the soft impeachment and we calmed 
her fears, telling her we would not disturb her lover. I asked 
the man if he had any eatables. He said he had twenty-one 
mouths to feed and they had nothing but some bacon, eggs 
and milk. I asked him where his twenty-one mouths were 
and he said he had taken his niggers to Richmond for safety. 
He also informed me he had paid one thousand dollars for his 
new suit in that city and the times had become so desperate 
that the planters did not know what was to become of them. 
I told him wc were out of food and if he would let us have 
some bacon and eggs we would pay him a fair price for the 
same. To this he consented and while the girls went after 
the eggs, myself and a comrade accompanied him to the 
smokehouse where he uncovered a barrel half full of bacon 
cured from the celebrated variety of hog known as "razor- 
back." Selecting a ham about as big as my two hands 



Incidents of the March. 85 

placed palm to palm, I gave him a dollar greenback for it and 
the other boys having paid for their eggs he was so pleased 
he conducted us to the milkhouse and gave us all the milk 
we could drink. By this time the column had gotten quite 
a distance away, but we overtook them as they were going' 
into camp on the North Anna. Our artillery was engaged 
in a lively duel with the rebel batteries at this time, while 
pontoons were being laid preparatory to crossing the river, 
so our mess hustled lively to get our bacon and eggs cooked 
and eaten before the battle should commence. After cross- 
ing the rebels were driven backward steadily until darkness 
settled over the scene. After the desperate Battle of Spotts- 
sylvania had been fought, the regiment's term of service hav- 
ing- expired, they were marched to the rear and sent home, 
while those of us who had "veteranized" were consolidated 
with the Tenth Reserves. This parting between old com- 
rades of many hard fought battles was pathetic indeed and 
some were moved to tears. Our officers and comrades, our 
band and beloved flag were taken away and we were left dis- 
heartened and dispirited, and several days elapsed before we 
regained our wonted cheerfulness. In a few days we were 
on the march for Bethesda Church, with our minds fully oc- 
cupied by the dangers of the present instead of grief for the 
past. 

We reached Bethesda Church on ^lay the 30th and on 
this day the time of enlistment for the whole division expired, 
it having been averaged to fall on this date, as some of the 
regiments had been mustered into service sooner than others. 
We formed line of battle behind a rail fence which ran along- 
side of a dense woods ; to our left was a farm house, in front 
of which was planted a battery of artiller\^ ; in our im- 
mediate front was a cleared field, in which stood two negro 
cabins, and beyond the cabins the field was skirted by a heavy 
pine forest which our battery at the house was vigorously 
shelling. We had torn down the fence and piled up the rails, 
and with picks and shovels were busily engaged in throwing 
earth over them to make rifle pits, when suddenly we heard 



86 Incidents and Adventui'es in Rebehloni. 

the rebel yell. On looking to the front we saw a Virginia 
brigade, commanded by General Ramsey, coming at full 
charge out of the pine woods, and they were making for our 
battery double quick. We dropped our spades and grasping 
our rifles we poured a most deadly cross fire at close range 
into their ranks, while the battery rained doul)le shotted 
grape and canister into them, and in less time than it takes to 
tell it, that rebel brigade was almost annihilated, a very few 
only making their escape back to the woods. As I was tiring 
across the.top of the pit, a piece of a human jaw containing 
five teeth struck and stuck upright in a rail just in front of 
me. I suppose the rebel to whom it had belonged had been 
hit by a cannon shot and his head dashed to pieces. A few- 
yards in front of our position was a slight ravine in which 
some seven hundred of the enemy who were immediately un- 
der fire of our guns had taken refuge. We called out to 
them, "Johnnies come in out of the rain !" and they did not 
wait for a second invitation, but they came at once. One 
long, lank Virginian, as he stepped over our slight breast- 
works and saw our shovels, exclaimed, "by G — d, spades are 
trump this time." but he was evidently happy at the prospect 
of becoming a boarder at Uncle Sam's expense for a while. 

After the battle the division marched away to the tune 
of "Home again, home again, from a foreign shore," and the 
organization known as the Pennsylvania Reserves passed out 
of existence in the full tide of battle. 

Thus the veterans who had re-enlisted and the recruits 
who had joined us. were left on the field without colors, of- 
ficers or organization, whatsoever, but we were soon after- 
ward formed into the One Hundred and Ninetieth and One 
Hundred and Ninety-First P. V. 

While the battle was in progress I had noticed a rebel 
soldier with an unusually bright canteen hanging at his side 
kneeling behind a stump, and being placed after the battle 
on a picket detail. Iconcluded to go and see what Johnnie 
was doing there. I found that he was dead ; his canteen and 
his body were both literally perforated with bullets. I 



Battle of Bethesda Church. 



87 



passed on to the woods from which the rebels had charged. 
to fitid the whole intervening space thickly strewn with the 
dead. My beat extended from the woods to the first of the 
negro cabins before referred to, and mine was the last post 
on the line in that direction. By the time the pickets were 
posted darkness had set in. Oh, the pitiful cries and groans 
of the wounded and dying made of that night a night of 
horrors in very deed. But as we had been without rations all 
that day, when the excitemen.t of the battle was over, nature 
asserted herself, and we were desperately hungrv. I began 
to look about for something with which to satisfy hunger's 
demands, and directly finding a dead rebel whose haversack 
seemed to be reasonably well supplied, I cut it o^ his shoul- 
der, opened it, and in the dark ate what I supposed to be 
some water-soaked hardtack, but imagine my feelings when 
in the morning I discovered that instead of being water- 
soaked, they were blood soaked, but it was then too late to 
correct the mistake. I was obliged to submit to the inevit- 
able. After walking my beat for a half hour or so, the 
thought occurred to me that it might be well for me to ex- 
plore the cabin at the end of my beat. Accordinglv I ap- 
proached and opened the door and walked in, to find housed 
there twelve rebel soldiers, one captain and eleven privates. 
To state that I w-as surprised is drawing it mild ; as a matter 
of fact T was badly scared. I could feel m}- face blanching 
and my hair raising, but quickly regaining confidence I ex- 
claimed, as two of them were raising their guns to shoot, 
"Johnnies you are inside our lines. You are all prisoners. 
Everybody stack their arms in the corner," and as their 
captain repeated the order they sullenly obeyed without a 
word. I then called the corporal of the guard. While wait- 
ing for the corporal I talked with the captain who had been 
shot, the ball passing through the wrist just above the hand. 
He was a young man, about twenty-one years of age, I 
judged. He was fine appearing, and very gentlemanly. I 
asked him if his wound was painful ; he replied that it was 
not, and as at the time it was not bleeding, 1 had no appre- 



88 Incidents and Adventnre'^ in Rebeldpm. 

hensions in regarc' to it, l)ut 1 made him as comfortable as 
I could and assured him that I would take him to the hospital 
as soon as T was relieved in the morning, so that he might re- 
ceive the surgical attention of which he stood in such evident 
need. The eleven privates had been taken by the corporal 
and his guards to a place of safe-keeping, and the captain had 
the cabin all to himself, where I had left him in seeming com- 
fort, but my surprise can be better imagined than described 
when on going to the door to call my prisoner in the morn- 
ing I found him cold in death. Reaction had evidently 
come after the shock caused by the wound, and with it, a 
hemorrhage in which his young life had ebbed away. It has 
ever been a source of deep regret to me that I did not think 
to guard against such an exigency by placing a tourniquet 
upon his arm. The commander of this rebel brigade, (Gen- 
eral Ramsey), was killed, falling in close proximity to the 
other negro cabin, in which were taken ten or twelve rebel 
prisoners also ; there was found upon the person of the 
dead general, a fine gold watch, a gold mounted sword, and 
other valuables, all of which were restored to his friends at 
the first opportunity, T believe. After being relieved those of 
us who had been on picket duty rejoined our respective com- 
mands, which had moved back a short distance from the 
corpse strewn battle ground, near to a commissary, where 
our hunger-puckered stomachs were soon filled out with an 
abundant allowance of Uncle Sam's hardtack and "salt hoss." 
This battle field was within six miles of the field at 
Mechanicsville, where less than two years before the Re- 
serves had crushingly defeated a greatly superior force of the 
enemy — the end thus being near the beginning. The two 
thousand of the Reserves that remained of the ten thousand 
who had fought at Mechanicsville determined that the end 
of the service of the division should be as glorious as its be- 
ginning. From the ist of May our total loss in the division 
was one thousand two hundred and ninety-nine of^cers and 
men. One hundred and twenty-four officers and two thous- 
and and thirtv-eiirht men were all that remained of the 



Seven Pines. 8y 

thirteen regiments composing the Reserves. (Jne thousand 
seven hundred and fifty-nine men re-enHsted, leaving- about 
twelve hundred to go home. As those who re-enlisted par- 
ticipated in the balance of Grant's campaign, the glorious 
old Reserve Corps was represented in all the battles of the 
Army of the Potomac from Dranesville to Appomattox. 

After the Battle of Bethesda Church we were organized 
as the One Hundred and Ninetieth and One Hundred and 
Ninety-First P. V., and after General Grant had butted 
against the impregnable lines of the enemy at Cold Harbor, 
like Burnside had done at Fredericksburg, and with the same 
result, he flanked their position. The cjuery naturally arises : 
Why did he not flank before he butted and thus save the use- 
less sacrifice of thousands of bra\'e, patriotic lives ? After 
the disaster of Cold Harbor, which was fought on the same 
field as was Gaines' Mill, two years previous, with the hostile 
armies reversed in their positions, we were moved to Seven 
Pines. We were formed in line of battle in a woods and 
were sent into action here to relieve cavalry who had been 
fi'ghting dismounted, with every fourth man holding the 
horses. W^e went in with a hurrah, but the enemy seeing 
the infantry coming in such enthusiasm and numbers, wisely 
decided to withdraw, leaving us easy victors on this field. I 
saw after this battle a remarkable illustration of the wonder- 
ful tenacity of human life under conditions which it would 
be thought impossible for one to survive, even for a single 
moment. I came upon a rebel soldier wdio had received a 
shot in the head, the minie ball having entered the skull a 
little above and in front of the ear, on one side, passing ob- 
liquely through and coming out behind the ear on the oppo- 
site side. A white slouch hat lay beside him with holes 
through it, corresponding exactly with those in the head. A 
quantity of brain substance had oozed from the wound, and 
while standing in wonder that the man still breathed, one of 
our ambulances was driven up, a doctor stepped out of it, 
approached the wounded man, raised his head and gave him 
a drink of whisky. Shortly after taking the potion, the man 



90 Incidents and Adve7ttnres in Rebeldom, 

got upon liis feet, walked to the aml^ulance and unaided, got 
in and was driven to the hospital. Two things were, I 
thought, thoroughly demonstrated in this case, viz., first, 
that man can stand more and severer mutilation than 
any other animal, and secondly, that commissary whisky 
must possess great revivifying power, as here certainly was 
the most marvelous display of vitality that I had ever ob- 
served in any living thing, unless \ve except the snapping 
turtle, which is said to live for nine days after having its head 
severed. 

This was the last hostile meeting our command had with 
the enemy on the right bank of the James River, and the 
ground had been made historic by the battle fought there 
some two years previously. 

Soon after the events narrated in the previous chapter 
occurred our command was ferried across the James River 
and advanced on Petersburg. We encountered the first reb- 
el line some four or five miles from that city. While they had 
a strong position here, it had a fatal defect as will appear from 
the following description. They had a finely manned bat- 
tery planted near a well of water in the corner of a pine 
w^oods. which had formerly been used by the people of Peters- 
burg as a picnic ground. Several hundred yards in front of 
the battery and of the woods, was a well constructed rifle 
pit which was defended by South Carolina troops. About 
three hundred yards in front of the rifle pit was a well defined 
ravine which ran parallel with their line of battle. The sides 
of the ravine w^ere clothed with a small growth of timber 
and bushes, while the space between the woods and ravine 
was clear. So the ravine proved their Jonah, as we entered 
lo\ver down, out of their range, and marching up until oppo- 
site their ]:)its, we were protected from their fire, wdiich passed 
harmlessly over our heads. Creeping up the bank until we 
W'cre on a level with the field, we used our bayonets and tin 
cups in scooping out holes in the light sandy soil, which 
made excellent protection, and from these "gopher-holes" 
we were able to pour a continuously hot fire upon their bat- 



Petersburg. 91 

tery and rifle pits. Soon after I had finished my little pit, 
a major of a Massachusetts regiment ordered me out of it, 
I replied that I was not in his command. He said that made 
no difference, that we were overlapping his line and I must 
get out. Dave Richie, a comrade, spoke up and addressing 
the officer, said. "Who are you, anyhow ?" "I am Major 
Doolittle, sir." "Yes," said Richie, "Doolittle, both by 

name and by nature ! Get out of this, d you, or I will 

shoot you !" And he got. This was my first experience 
un<ler fire of explosive bullets and they did crack and snap 
about us in gTeat order. When one of them came in con- 
tact with any hard substance, the result was an explosion. 
One of my comrades, by the name of Samuel Wilcox, was 
struck in the thigh by one of those bullets at this Ijattle, 
which exploded on striking the bone, and the fragments 
tearing out in different directions made six distinct wounds, 
and it is supposed that he died from the effects of this 
wound, as we never heard from him afterwards. All day the 
battle raged, until darkness set in, when the firing on bo'h 
sides ceased. Shortly after darkness had settled over the 
scene, without a general order, and as if by intuition our line 
got to their feet and without firing a shot, charged simul- 
taneously the rebel works, and rushing over their pits, were 
among the Johnnies before they knew we were coming. We 
secured as prisoners the whole batch of them, not a man es- 
caping so far as we knew. The morning following I went 
over to where their battery had stood on the opening of the 
battle, and Oh, what a sight was here ! It seemed as if the 
entire human and animal life which had composed its work- 
ing force had been swept at one fell swoop into the vortex 
of death. Two of the caissons had been blown up, and 
among the wreckage dead men and horses, torn and dis- 
membered, were lying thick. I thence proceeded to the well 
from whence had erstwhile flowed the life-giving water ; it 
is now choked by the stream of death. In it are the bodies 
of from eight to ten dead men. Turning from this scene of 
war's horrible carnage, we moved on to the enemy's main 



92 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldom. 

line of defence a])Oul Petersburg, and took possession of a 
line of rifle pits \vhich had been abandoned by the rebels 
when our advance was made. 

Here we were directly under the fire of the enemy, and 
as the men were worn ont with fighting and marching, a ra- 
tion of whisky was issued to each soldier. Being inspired 
with a sort of false courage, the order having been given to 
occupv a more advanced position in our front, which by the 
way was one of great danger, the detail under the influence 
of the stimulant recklessly exposed themselves to the rebel 
fire and a number of them lost their lives in consequence. 
There were two brothers in the detail, one of whom was killed 
and his body borne to the rear. The remaining brother rent 
the air with wailing and lamentations for awhile, then turn- 
ing, shook his fist fiercely at the rebel line and called down 
heaven's maledictions upon the murderers of his brother. A 
man of Company F was here shot through the head and 
though unconscious he lived for several hours. While he 
was dying a grave was dug alongside of him into which he 
was laid as soon as tlie breath had left the body. The part of 
the line upon which we were was near the point at which the 
rebel fort was mined and afterwards blown up. But about 
the time the mine was commenced we were moved several 
miles to the left, where we encamped in the woods and con- 
structed Fort Warren. To our right was a cleared field 
which was over half a mile wide, and extended clear up to 
the rebel line. This field was covered with a rank growth 
of ragweed. The woods on either side of the open space 
extended flush up to our rifle pits. Stretching obliquely 
across the field was a strip of oozy, bogg}' ground, terminat- 
ing at a spring near the woods on the right, and still another 
strip of miry ground which terminated in a magnolia swamp 
at the corner of the woods on the left. This field as well as 
the woods on both sides, was swept by a terrific fire from the 
enemy's lines, by both artillery and infantry. It seemed 
whenever the Johnnies felt like burning powder, this was 
their objective point, and it appeared to us that they never 
tired, for they kept it up day and night. 



Marched to the Rifle Pits. 93 

The One Hundred and Ninety-First was commanded 
by a Colonel Carle who had served as a sergeant in the regu- 
lar army. He was quite a martinet in his loearing 
and w'as greatly given to his cups. He was also over- 
bearing and tyrannical, especially so, when drunk. One 
day when pretty well boozed he was ordered to relieve a 
Massachusetts regiment which was in the more advanced 
rifle pits ; in fact these pits were only a few yards from the 
enemy's lines. Forming his regiment and riding at the head 
of the column, wdth a canteen of wdiisky swinging from his 
shoulder, he marched us through the open field in full view 
of the rebels, up to the rifle pits. The enemy opened upon 
us a galling artillery fire, under which nine men were killed 
and wounded before we could reach cover in the rifle pits. 
Some of the company officers were so indignant at this fool- 
hardy and criminal action on the part of the colonel that they 
unloosed their swords and refused to serve longer under him. 
but in some w^ay he managed to pacify them and succeeded 
in prevailing upon them to resume their swords. One of 
the men in the command which we went to relieve, while en- 
gaged in laughing at seeing us trying to dodge the rebel 
shells, g-ot his head above the level of the w^orks. and a can- 
non shot carried the back part of his head aw'ay, leaving his 
features complete, which were still convulsed with laughter, 
as he lay there in death, like a statue of Tragedy, wearing 
the mask of Comedy. But for the overweening- recklessness 
of our puerile colonel, we should have reached our objective 
point without the loss of a man. We could easily have 
done so by a slight detour, on either, hand through the 
woods, and that method was thereafter pursued wdien re- 
lieving the line. At this time our fire upon the works of 
the enemy was incessant, day and night. Our fixed ammu- 
nition was brought onto the field in boxes containing one 
thousand rounds each. The boxes were split open, and the 
soldier could help himself. 

The opposing lines were in such close proximity on 
some parts of the field, that a conversation with the enemy 



94 Incidents ajid Adventures in Rebeldom. 

could be carried on in an ordinary tone of voice, and we final- 
ly arranged a truce, the conditions of which were, that in 
case either side received orders to reopen hostilities, a sig- 
nal shot must be fired in the air, as a fair warning to the other 
side. And to the honor of both parties, be it said 
this stipulation was faithfully carried out. This ar- 
rangement was made between the men without the consent 
or knowledge of the ofiicers. We finally became upon so 
good terms with each other that traffic sprang up between 
us. The barter usually was coffee and tobacco. Of the for- 
mer we frequently had superabundance, and of the latter they 
usually had an excess, so the conditions of trade were favor- 
able, and under this treaty we became quite neighborly, so 
much so indeed, that sitting on top of our rifie pits, we would 
read aloud from our Northern papers for Johnnie's edifi- 
cation, and Johnnie would reciprocate in kind, by reading 
aloud to us from the papers of his section, and to hear the 
criticism that would follow the reading of an article, by those 
of adverse side, would furnish lots of amusement for the 
boys. It was in listening to an article read l)y a Johnnie, 
from a Southern newspaper, that we first learned of the cap- 
ture of General Stoneman, who had been raiding with his 
cavalry in Northern Georgia. At the time the rebs read the 
article we utterly scouted it, but sure enough in a very few 
days the account was confirmed by the Northern press. 

On the right of our line was a road leading to Peters- 
burg and directly across the road was a fort or rather a strong 
redoubt, which had been abandoned by our forces evidently 
from a suspicion that it was being mined by the enemy. I 
had an opportunity one day, and I took a look into it. The 
guns had all been removed, and there were oat sacks hang- 
ing over the embrasures, but it did really bear traces of coun- 
termining ; however, a fort was built near it on the opposite 
side of the road. I had been posted as a vidette l^etween the 
lines for the purpose of watching the movements of the 
enemy to prevent surprise. I had just been relieved by 
Comrade Warnian when we heard the warning shot which 



Neiv Regtilations 95 

was immediately followed by a volley. We were lying out- 
side our pit, but soon rolled into it, and returned the fire. 
But finally the fire slackened somewhat, when one of our fel- 
lows hallooed across to the Johnnies, '"Fire away there you 
d — m — ed rebels ! you can't hit anybody," when they 
ceased shooting in apparent disgust. Our men made a lot 
of gabions, and ramming them solidly with earth, and get- 
ting behind them, rolled them up to where they purposed 
building a fort, and under cover of this protection com- 
menced digging. This being done during the night the 
enemy heard them, and opened fire and vigorously shelled 
them, but with little efi^ect, and by day-break next morning 
we had a stout embankment, which grew in a short time into 
a strong redoubt. The lines at this point being so close to 
each other, it became a favorite spot for desertions. A num- 
ber of the rebels came to us here, but soon a strict watch 
was instituted by both sides to prevent desertions. I never 
knew of but one of our men to attempt it. and it resulted dis- 
astrously to him, as he was shot and killed just as he reached 
the enemy's rifle pits. The shooting was done by one of the 
Buck Tails. 

After being relieved from service on this part of the line, 
we returned to our old camp. Here the colonel at once pro- 
ceeded to institute new regulations which consisted of every- 
thing being done by tap of drum, and as we had not been 
schooled in that sort of tactics, it was very awkward business 
for us, and as a consecjuence. mistakes were freciuent. This 
would exasperate the doughty colonel and he would tyran- 
nicallv and brutally resent it. Taps were sounded for roll- 
call early in the morning. L^pon one occasion some of Com- 
pany F's men not putting in an appearance as promptly as 
Colonel Carle thought they should have done, he rushed to 
their tents and kicked them out. That night several shots 
were sent whizzing through his tent just over his head, and 
rushing out he found a coffin at his tent door, inscribed, 
"Beware," and on it the crossbones. He took the hint and 
learned the lesson which it took West Pointers sometimes 



96 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldom. 

so long to learn, vi/.. that volnnteers were not regulars. 
However, it cured liim of his brutal practices and made a 
pretty decent officer of him. 

The next time we were sent to relieve the picket line it 
was to the left of where we had been before, and quite near 
to the magnolia swamp. A number of the Massachusetts 
men had been killed in this swamp and if I recollect correctly, 
had not yet been buried. 

The rebel vidette post at this point was so close to our 
pit that he could hear our conversation, aiid it was deter- 
mined that he should be crowded back further, and as it was 
my trick on as vidette, I was sent out to occupy his post be- 
fore he came on for the night. As darkness had not yet set- 
tled down, I cautiously crawled out through the ragweed 
and reached the place undiscovered, and after getting my 
bearings a little, T began looking about me. I saw^ two 
Johnnies in bright new uniforms lying outside of their pit. 
My first impulse was to shoot and I drew a bead on one of 
them, when it occurred to me that it would be too much akin 
to delil)erate murder, and I could not pull the trigger ; but 
I have often thought, that if "somebody's darling" had 
realized how near he was to death's door that evening, it 
would have caused the chills to chase each other up 
his spinal marrow in rapid succession. I stood my "trick," 
or rather I should say, crouched it, in the weeds until relieved 
by Comrade J. Malone, (who was afterwards captured and 
died of starvation at Salisbury). Soon after I was relieved 
the rebel vidette put in his appearance, and on seeing his post 
occupied, he called out, "Say, Yank I You are on my post !" 
"I know it, Johnnie," said Malone, "but you can't have it 
any more, you are too close to our pit. Here, move back !" 
And he moved without further protest. 

After we had completed the construction of Fort War- 
ren we were moved still farther to the left, and being de- 
ployed we covered the line which had been previously held 
by the Second Corps. This corps, (the Second), had been 
marched to the rear of the mine, and it was their misfortune 



The Mine Explosion. 97 

to be involved in that blundering and terribly mismanaged 
fiasco. Myself and a comrade by the name of Williams were 
placed on picket here, our station being in a strip of pine 
woods, and we remained on this post for sixteen days, reliev- 
ing each other every four hours, day and night, our food 
being brought to us. This was a very lonely spot, and the 
mournful notes of the whipporwill at night rendered it still 
more distressingly lonesome. Williams was a long, lean, 
hungry-looking man, with an inordinate appetite. He 
would frequently eat his sixteen ounces of bread, meat and 
beans in proportion, at one meal, washing it down with a 
quart of strong, black coffee, and like "Oliver Twist" wish for 
more. He informed me that this voracious appetite was a-c- 
quired in working as a boatman on the Allegheny River, and 
that he could easily stow away a small ham, a peck of pota- 
toes, with bread and butter and such other garnishment as 
might accompany, at one sitting without the slightest incon- 
venience to himself. But as my rations were more than suf- 
ficient to meet my requirements, I cheerfully contributed my 
surplus stock, which helped to make Williams' stay in the 
woods more endurable, but I frequently thought that his 
buzz-saw appetite would wreck the oldest boarding house es- 
tablishment in the realm in a brief time. From our post in 
the woods we had a distant view of the mine explosion in 
front of Petersburg, and a fearful eruption it was. It caused 
the earth to sway and rock as though riven by an earth- 
quake, while an immense black balloon, a thousand feet or 
more in diameter, shot into the air a distance of several hun- 
dred feet, then bursting, scattered its death dealing frag- 
ments far and wide. At least five hundred rebels, with their 
ordnance and equipment were blown to atoms by the ex- 
plosion of over ten tons of powder which had been buried 
beneath the fortress, and had the Federal forces, designated 
to charge the rebel line when the mine should explode, had 
they, I say, followed the orders given, that day would 
doubtless have seen Petersburg occupied by the Union 
army. But some one high in authority had grievously 



98 Incidents and Adventures in Rcbeldom. 

blundered, as had so frequently been the case on more than 
one important occasion before in this army. But the sol- 
dier. "Not his to reason why. Not his to make reply, but 
his to do. and die." 

You will allow me here to say that it is my candid opin- 
ion that the history of the armies of the world will be search- 
ed in vain for a parallel for a series of blunders such as charac- 
terized the Army of the Potomac ; all chargeable to the in- 
competency of its commanders. /\s to those made by Mc- 
Clelland, few doubt but that they were purposely made ; an 
outward expression of an inward disloyalty to his country. 
But what is to be said of the blundering which resulted so 
disastrously at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Cold 
Harbor ? To say nothing of the abortion of the mine at 
Petersburg. Can these failures be chargeable to any other 
cause than that of stupendous blundering ? Either one of 
which would have been avoided by the exercise of good judg- 
ment or common sense. The superior military ability with 
which General Lee is accredited was due largely to the blun- 
derings of the commanders of the Army of the Potomac. 
General Lee made egregious mistakes also, which if they had 
been taken advantage of by the Union commanders, would 
have resulted in the utter destruction of the rebel army. 
Notable among his blunders was the detaching of three 
whole divisions from his army and sending them to the cap- 
ture of Harper's Ferry, thus leaving himself with only about 
thirty-five thousand men. with which to oppose the ninety 
thousand well armed and well fed men composing Geo. B. 
McClelland's army. But it is evident that General Lee 
knew with whom he had to deal. General McClelland knew 
also all about the movement of Lee's forces, as the order for 
their disposition had fallen into his hands ; there can l)e no 
shadow of a doubt that McClelland purposely and traitor- 
ously withheld the blow which could and would have wiped 
Lee's army out of existence as a military organization. 

The rebels had no braver men or l)etter fighters than 
had the Federals, and T maintain that there never was a time. 



o 



Ijicompetent Officers. 99 

from the moment of its organization until its muster out, 
that the noble old Army of the Potomac could not hold its 
own against an equal number of Johnnies, or any other sol- 
diers on the face of the earth. But the fact remains that the 
Army of the Potomac was greatly handicapped by the incom- 
petency of its leaders, and as a member of that army it makes 
my blood boil to think how the brave, patriotic men of which 
that grand Army of the Potomac was composed, had to rest 
under the suspicion of incompetency, when, in point of fact, 
the whole trouble was chargeable to the character of its lead- 
ership, who not only blundered themselves, but were incap- 
able of profiting by the mistakes of the enemy against whom 
they were pitted. 




CHAPTER X. 

The Capture. 

As the enemy held the Weldon raih'oad, we were 
marched to Yellow Tavern to seize and destroy the road at 
that point. Here on the i8th of August, 1864, we advanced 
upon the enemy's works under a terrific fire from their field 
batteries, and in the midst of a rain storm, with heaven's ar- 
tillery let loose upon us, it seemed as though the wrath of 
God was conspiring" with the fury of man, in wreaking ven- 
geance upon our devoted heads. We drove the enemy from 
their position at the railroad through a piece of woods, and 
into their line of works, and there succeeded in holding them 
at bay while the railroad was being destroyed. Our position 
here being very exposed, every fellow was anxious for his 
own safety. I succeeded in scooping out a small pit, into 
which I crawled, but from which I was soon forced by reason 
of its filling with water, as the downpour of rain continued. 
I then secured a position behind a nearby tree. While 
standing behind my tree I saw through an embrasure in the 
fort a man who was evidently a cannoneer. I aimed, and 
shot ; he fell, and I am glad that that is all I know about 
the transaction. I do not of course know how all old sol- 
diers feel about such matters, but while it is probable that 
no soldier who was in several engagements, and did his duty 
as a .soldier, but caused the death of one or more of his fellow 
beings, and while he might have been, and probably was en- 
tirely justifiable in so doing, yet there is an aversion I believe 
in every old soldier's heart, to knowing that he killed any- 
body. At about this time we dispatched Comrade Springer 
to the rear on a double mission, as our ammunition was near- 
ly exhausted, and we were anxious for a cup of coffee. This 
little unimportant incident was the beginning of the most 
desperate and soul-harrowing dilemma we as soldiers were 



TJie Capture. loi 

ever fated to be caught in. Springer came rushing 1)ack in 
a few moments with blanched face to inform us that we were 
completely surrounded, that the enemy was in our rear, and 
for every man to look out for himself. On hearing this we 
very naturally started back by the way we had come. I now 
think if we had taken an ol)lique direction, to our left, we 
might have flanked the rebel line and escaped, but that was 
not to be for we soon encountered a line of rebel skirmishers 
whom we captured and disarmed. Among our captives was 
a mounted of^cer to whom one of our men said, as he threat- 
eningly raised his gun. "Get down off that horse, you rebel 

son of a b h ! or I'll blow your brains out." and the 

reb dismounted without parley. "Now make off there." 
says Yank. "I'll do the riding act myself," and we started 
on with our prisoners, thinking we were taking them into 
our lines, when suddenly we ran into a rebel brigade which 
was drawn up in line of battle. The tables were turned, 
the officer so recently dismounted looked up at the man on 
his horse, and said, "I guess I'll ride that horse again now !" 
"I guess you will," said the man, and jumping nimbly down, 
he dashed his gun against a tree, and the rest of us imitated 
his example, thus making our arms useless to the enemy, 
but as Comrade Mitchell struck his rifle against a tree, it ex- 
ploded, and I narrowly escaped receiving its contents in my 
body. The officer whom we had so unceremoniously dis- 
mounted, proved to be the rebel General Mahone, and it 
was his brigade which now stood so much in our way of es- 
cape. It was a startling and remarkable fact, that this en- 
tire rebel brigade, in broad daylight, had been marched to 
the rear of our lines, formed in line of battle and deployed 
skirmishers without opposition or discovery ; in fact all our 
line officers had been made prisoners before the rank and 
file knew that the Johnnies were in the rear at all. and not a 
shot had been fired until about the time we were engaged in 
taking the rebel skirmishers prisoners. About that time our 
batteries opened a hot fire upon us, but they fired too high to 
do the rebel brigade any harm. 



I02 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldoni. 

Human language does not contain words sufficiently 
expressive with which to denounce the criminal stupidity 
and incompetence of the officer who was responsible for this 
affair : when a simple line of pickets posted on our flank 
would have rendered such a move impossible upon the part 
of the rebels, or it v^'ould at least have given warning so that 
the movement could have been checkmated. There were 
some three thousand of us captured here by the rebels and 
at least three-fourths of this number were purposely starved 
to death in the prison hells of the South. We were hurried- 
ly hustled ol¥ to Petersburg, the rebels stealing our blankets 
and the hats of¥ our heads as we were marched along. I had 
a iight with a Johnnie who tried to take my hat and I man- 
aged to retain it, but soon thereafter traded it ofT for an in- 
ferior cap, and a five dollar Confederate note. I swapped 
as the Yankee would say, because I realized that it would be 
a question of a short time when I should be obliged to give 
it up, as they systematically robbed us of everything valu- 
able we possessed. As we passed through Petersburg I ob- 
served several unexploded two hundred pound shells, which 
I concluded had been sent in by Uncle Sam as visiting cards. 
The first night of our captivity we were corralled in the open 
air near the city. During the night a rebel came among us 
for the purpose of robbing us of any valual^les that might 
still be found with us, and seeing Comrade Richie having a 
blanket, he attempted to steal it, but he had wakened up the 
wrong passenger, for Richie jumped to his feet and promptly 
knocked the rebel down. Upon regaining his feet the in- 
furiated rebel rushed ofT for his gun, and returning threaten- 
ed to kill all the d — m — d Yankees in the camp, but a rebel 
officer hearing the rumpus, came up at this juncture, and 
ordered the cowardly cur off the grounds. The following 
morning we were shipped to Richmond by rail. On arriving 
there we were confined in a large brick building, known as 
PemI)erton. It stood on Cary street, above, and nearlv op- 
posite Libby Prison. 

While confined in this building John McCloskv, who is 



Libby Prison. 



103 




I04 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldom. 

now living in Fostoria, C, threw a Spencer rifle cartridge 
which he w^ished to be rid of out tlie window. It struck the 
pavement and exploded. This occurrence caused a great 
stir among the Johnnies and they at once rushed a number 
of soldiers and several officers into the building to punish 
the Yank who had tried to blow up the guard. The Buck 
Tail explained that having no further use for the cartridge, 
he had simply thrown it away ; however, this explanation 
was not accepted and the man was brutally bucked and 
gagged. After this incident we were moved across to Libby 
and confined on the second floor of that infamously histori- 
cal building, and the notorious Dick Turner, and his pal John 
Ross, put in an appearance, ostensibly for the purpose of tak- 
ing charge for safe keeping of the effects of the prisoners of 
war, but really for the purpose of robbery in a wholesale way. 
"Now," said Turner to us. "all those of you wdio voluntarily 
give up their money and valuables to us, the same will be 
safely kept and returned to you on your leaving the prison, 
and the clerk will now take your names, make a schedule, 
carefully describing everything so left with him, but every- 
body will be searched, and all property not handed over to 
the clerk will be immediately confiscated." The first divis- 
ion of Turner's speech was a lie, pure and simple, as that 
l)rince of thieves, Dick Turner, and his robber gang, never 
returned, nor never designed returning anything they had 
stolen from the prisoners of war. However, the latter por- 
tion of the speech of the villain we found to be literally true, 
for they did search every one of us, and they did confiscate 
everything that the search developed, lead pencils, combs, 
pocket knives, jewelry, watches and money ; everything, in 
fact, but our scant clothing was taken. I happened to have 
on my person at that time two bank notes, a two dollar 
greenback and a ten dollar Confederate States note, and 
wdien I heard Dick Turner's speech. I at once made up my 
mind to leave as little property with that clerk of his as I 
conveniently could ; accordingly I proceeded to cut a small 
strip of the red leather off of the top of one of my bootlegs. 



Belle Isle. 105 

and in this I tigiitly wrapped my money, and placing it in m.y 
mouth I saved it. T also saved my pocket knife, which was 
a small one, by placing it in the palm of my hand and deftly 
placing my thumb over it. So I passed the search, and saved 
my money and pocket knife. This latter article aided me in 
wdiiling away many an hour in the ])rison life which followed, 
that would otherw'ise have hung heavy on my hands, for we 
would sit by hours and \yhittle and carve, in forming trinkets 
from bits of wood and l)one, some specimens of which I still 
have in my possession. Shortly after Dick Turner's robbery 
had been enacted at Libby, we were transferred to Belle 
Island, which is situated in the James River, above the city 
of Richmond, Va. 

The Tredegar Iron works, now busily at w^ork turning 
out rebel war material, occupied the upper end of the island 
while our prison camp, several acres in extent, and surround- 
ed by rifle pits, w-as located at the lower, or western end of 
the island. The entrance gate, the cook house and the 
guards' quarters w^ere on the Richmond side of the island, 
while an alleyway skirted with tight board fence on either 
side led to the river on the Manchester side. Through this 
alley the prisoners passed in getting water from the river. 
From the alley round to the cook house the river made a 
sharp bend. In this bend out in the river were several small 
islands, very small, some of them only a few yards in ex- 
tent, and the largest of the group was not more than twenty 
feet distant from the one on which we were imprisoned, but 
a deep channel flowed between. These isles were thickly 
covered with a growth of willows and rushes, and were util- 
ized by some of the prisoners in their attempts at escape as 
will be narrated later on. 

Lying between the prison pen and the Tredegar Iron 
mills, was a hill, upon the brow of Avhich was placed a bat- 
tery whose guns were trained upon our camp. Then across 
the river, on the Richmond hills, was another battery, with 
its guns trained in the same suggestive manner. W'e were 
supplied with a few old rotten rags of canvas for shelter, but 



io6 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldont. 

were allowed no fire. And just here T wish to say that in my 
humble opinion there existed between the leaders of the Con- 
federate cause, and hell, a league which the Prince of Dark- 
ness on the one hand, and Jefferson Davis on the other, 
stood mutually pledged to carry out in such a way and man- 
ner as should best and most fully employ each and all the hell- 
born devices for the affliction and torment of men. From the 
middle of the year 1864 until the collapse of the rebellion, I 
say on, and after, the date last named, were the darkest and 
most desperate days of the Southern Confederacy. We 
search in vain, the whole category of crime, for one, which 
these desperate rebel leaders would for an instant halt, or hes- 
itate to commit, to bolster their tottering pillars of state. 
They deliberately planned for arson, w'ith all its concomitant 
crimes, for the spreading of contagious diseases by means 
of infected clothing amongst the people of the North, and 
the wholesale murder, by starvation, of the Union soldiers 
which the fortunes of war had placed within their power. 
For shame ! For shame ! And then to remember that after 
all this revelry in crime, after all this hellish refinement of 
cruelty toward our brave, but helpless and defenceless boys, 
locked as prisoners of war in their dank, reeking prison pens, 
to be flayed alive with vermin, and finally starved to death 
by a protracted process. I say then to think that to such 
as those was extended the executive clemency, and not a vil- 
lain of them all received the just recompense of reward for 
their crimes. Oh ! how I thank heaven to-day as I remem- 
ber and seem to see again, the comrades of my prison life, 
with emaciated forms, sunken cheeks and eyes, eyes which 
were wont to sparkle and glow with life's loves and ambitions, 
now glazing in death's slow oncoming tide, and I seem to 
hear again the voice once strong and musical as the spheres, 
now weak and sepulchral as though it issued from the tomb, 
as its last cadence dies away in a feeble cry for bread. As I 
remember these things my heart swells with gratitude when 
I remember also that Jehovah hath said "Vengeance is Mine ! 
1 will repay, saith the Lord !" It was not until after the 



Attempt to Escape. ' 107 

regime of starvation was inaugurated by the rebel govern- 
ment as a course of treatment of the prisoners of war, that the 
other barbarities which I have enumerated werfe put into 
practice, so that those of our comrades who were prisoners 
during the earlier period of the war scarcely know what 
breathing holes of hell these later prisons were. Here it 
was that imprisonment for a few months meant death sure 
and certain, graduated solely on the power of constitutional 
endurance of the individual prisoner. May God forgivt 
those worse than red-handed murders if he will, but I believe 
I never can. 

To continue the account and description of our camp 
on Belle Isle. The space between the water and the bend 
in the river before alluded to, down to the water's edge was 
utilized for the purpose of counting the prisoners. We were 
turned into this space as often as every other day, and as 
we were marched back into camp, we were counted off by 
the rebs. This ground was, when first set apart as a corral 
for us, well set with grass, but the starving men soon had 
pulled the last spear of it, and ate it up, root and branch, un- 
til that ground v^^as as bare as the rock of Gibraltar. At all 
times save when the counting process was going on, a heavy 
guard was maintained along the line of the alley, and also 
around the camp, but when we were out for the purpose of 
being counted, at such times they only had a light guard 
along the river front, as they were well assured that no one 
would be likely to attempt swimming the river, at least, in 
the daytime, in an effort to escape. One day when they had 
turned us out for counting a rebel guard posted at the bend, 
in order to mark the end of his beat, laid down his shelter 
tent. I had my eye on that tent, and I wanted it, and I con- 
cluded to have it, or fail in an attempt to secure it. So I 
watched the guard until he rounded the bend on his beat, 
then I gobbled the tent and hustled up into the crowd and 
gave one-half of it to my comrade, and we made short work 
of wrapping that canvas around our bodies, and. sooth to 
say, we got safely into camp with it, too. In the course of 



io8 Incidents and Adventnres in Rebeldom. 

the day there were seven Ijrave fellows who had determined 
to make a break for freedom, so, watching until the guard 
was well around the bend on his beat again, when silently 
they dropped into the water, and swimming to the isle 
twenty feet away, they drew themselves up amongst the wil- 
lows without having been discovered by the guard. Their 
design was to lie concealed till night came on, then to swim 
the river and so make their escape. But the rebs in some 
way discovered them, and they wefe brought back, and made 
to ride the wooden horse as a punishment. As some of my 
readers may not be familiar with this strain of horses, I will 
briefly describe a wooden horse. It is a trestle such as car- 
penters use to rest lumber on which they wish to saw. only 
that the wooden horse trestle is longer of leg than that used 
by the carpenter. Now that is all it takes to make a horse 
of the kind under discussion ; but now as to the fellow who 
has to ride the horse, I will tell you how they fix him. They 
take the offender and set him astride of the trestle, tie his 
hands behind his back, a tent pin is driven into the ground 
on either side of the horse, a tent rope is fastened to each of 
the ankles of the rider, then made fast to the tent pins which 
are then tightly driven into the ground, and while the rider's 
feet cannot touch the ground, he is stretched down so closely 
that he is in no danger of becoming unhorsed, and his hands 
being fastened behind h.im he cannot protect himself from the 
swarms of gnats and flies which attack his face and neck ; 
and being totally unable to shift his position, the torture be- 
comes unl)earal>le, and the victim often faints away. I saw 
two of the recaptured prisoners faint, when I walked away 
from the brutal scene, wishing that T had almighty power 
for about one minute, and if T could have had it, I am think- 
ing you are making a pretty safe guess as to what use I would 
have put it to. The day following the rebels shaved the ver- 
dure off those litttle isles until they were as bald as goose 
eggs ; there was no more hiding there. 

Some days after, when we were turned out for another 
count, I observed the imprint of a man in the sand, and like 



Belle Isle. 



109 




no Incidents and Adventures in Reheldom. 

Robinson Crusoe on discovering a footprint in the sand, I 
was startled. It instantly suggested to my mind a method of 
escape and quickly obliterating the telltale imprint, I walked 
up to the rear of the cook house, where I had observed an old 
Sibley tent pole to be lying for a week or more and I had been 
cudgeling my brain for a chance to secure and use it. Now 
here was the chance, and the use would come later. I laid 
hold of it, and after a little struggle I succeeded in wrenching 
olT one of the three iron feet and rolHng it up in my shelter 
tent I carried it into camp. I immediately called a council 
of war among my messmates, and submitted my plans, which 
received their approval, and were as follows : The next time 
we were turned out for count, a compact ring or circle was 
to be formed by us, so that the guard could not see what was 
going on within, thus screened we were to dig a cave in the 
sand, of sufficient size to accommodate two men, (for digging 
we used the iron foot I had secured from the tent pole). The 
men were to be covered up in the sand, and to remain until 
some time the following night, when being outside the guard 
they could swim the river and make their escape, and at the 
next count off two more, and so on. On our next outing 
we dug our hole according to our plaiis and specifications 
and selecting Comrades David Richie and Calvin Darnell, 
they being small men, we buried them up, leaving holes for 
air which we concealed by placing some dead grass over 
them. The next time the hole was to be enlarged, and Isaac 
Moore and myself, two of the larger men in the mess were 
to have our inning. With what anxiety we watched that 
spot of ground that afternoon. Imagine our alarm when 
late in the day we saw some pigs rooting around near where 
our boys were buried. Those infernal swine, they kept pok- 
ing around there until one of them stepped into one of the 
breathing holes. Richie caught him by the foot. I saw 
the pig jerking to get loose, and as there were two rebels en- 
gaged in fishing only a short distance away, I was fearful lest 
they would observe it, and enter upon an investigation of the 
cause of the strange action of the hog, but they did not seem 



Search After Hiding Prisoners. 1 1 1 

to see it at all, and Richie let go of the pig's foot, and he 
walked off as if nothing had happened. I have often won- 
dered why the rebs kept those pigs in the inclosure about 
the cook house, but after debating the subject to some ex- 
tent we reached the conclusion that it was to garnish our 
soup with a pork flavor, as we have ofttimes detected them 
with their snouts in our soup buckets before the soup was 
served to us. However, I never was so fortunate as to find 
a scrap of meat of any kind in my soup, while in Belle Isle. 
But I conclude that you also are becoming anxious about 
the comrades whom we left buried in the sand some hours 
since. Well as the rebel officer of the guard that evening 
was making his rounds, a soldier belonging to a New York 
command called him up to the fence and informed him in re- 
gard to Richie and Darnell, and pointed out to him as nearly 
as he could, where they were in hiding. The officer drew 
his sword and proceeded to make search after the hiding 
prisoners. He pierced the ground all about them but failing 
to find them sent word to Major Turner at Richmond, who 
had charge of all prisoners of war in and about Richmond. 
Now, while this Turner was no relation to Dick, of Libby, 
they were as near of kin in villainies, as two peas in a pod. 
The major came over to the island armed with an old pep- 
per-box revolver. He had twelve or fifteen soldiers with 
him. These he set to work jabbing around in the sand, un- 
til one of them stuck Richie in the head, which caused him 
to cry out, then they set about digging them out of their 
hiding place. As soon as poor Richie was out of the hole 
the valorless major presented his revolver at his head and 
endeavored to shoot him but the weapon refused to respond, 
and after snapping it for awhile, threw it into the river in 
disgust. He then ordered that the prisoners be kept in the 
hole where they were found for two days and nights, without 
food or water, and after placing a guard over them, the chiv- 
alrous Southerner returned to his post at Richmond, where 
he no doubt gave to his associates in crime a glowing account 
of his deeds of valor done that dav against two unarmed 



112 Iiicid€}its ajid Adventures in Rebeldom. 

and half starved prisoners of war. On our l)eing turned out 
again for count the next day we threw them some small bits 
of bread which we had sax'ed for the i~)in'pose from oiu' own 
meagre rations, but we could not give them any water. 
After remaining in the hole for the prescribed length of time, 
they were allowed to rejoin the niess. The man who in- 
formed the guard of the plot of these boys tc^ escape was 
found out by one of our men, and we were about to organize 
a court martial for his trial, when we were all shipped to 
Salisbury, where I learned he afterward died of starvation. 

As food is the all-aljsorbing thought by day and the 
theme of dreams by night to starving men, it is proper to 
give a description of the quality and quantity of the grub, 
for to call it food would be to misname it, (even if it were de- 
signed for hogs). It would be almost impossible to give one 
who did not have an opportunity of seeing the rations which 
were furnished us. as prisoners of war at our country retreat 
on Belle Isle, and at the Hotel de Libby in the city. For 
breakfast we had a piece of cornbread about two inches 
square, or one slice of wheat bread, (usually sour), and one 
pint of coffee, (so-called), made from parched rye. For din- 
ner we had absolutely nothing. For supper we were served 
the same amotmt of bread, and of the same quality, and 
either a ])int of rye coft'ee or instead thereof a pint of pea, 
soup, or one tablespoonful of boiled rice, or two ounces of 
rotten l)acon or beef. This constituted the entire bill of fare 
at the two hostelries named. The variety consisted alone 
in the fact that if you got cctffee }ou did not get souj). and 
if \-ou got soup you did not get rice, and if yoti got rice, you 
did not get meat. They never made the unpardonable mis- 
take of serving any two of the articles named at any one meal. 
The peas used in making soup were of a variety known in the 
South as "Nigger peas" and were invariably bug-eaten. 
The soup was flavored with a bit of the kind of pork of which 
I have s])oken ; it was necessary to skim the bugs off before 
the SOU]) could be swallowed, as they arose to the siu"face in 
great (luartities. In regard to the bacon furnished, if the 



Belle Isle Bill of Fare. 113 

human mind can conceive of anything reahy loathsome, that 
bacon would stand for its representative ; if a bit of the 
rind were lifted it would reveal a squirming mass of maggots 
and worms, or if it were cooked, there they would lie in grim 
and greasy rows, rigid in death. The beef supply consisted 
of shin bones and heads from which the tongues were inva- 
riablv extracted, and the eyes left in, and sometimes the cud 
would be found sticking between the jaws. When the meat 
was served an ox eye was a full ration of meat for one pris- 
oner, and the poor starved men would trim and gnaw them 
until they had the appearance of large glass marbles. On 
Christmas and New Years, and holidays, we were given 
nothing whatever to eat. One day when we were to be 
counted, I saw a rebel give a prisoner a. c[uart of peas, and 
surmising that they had been given to him as a reward for 
"informing," I concluded to watch him. I did so. The poor 
fellow being so near starved gulped them, as a hog might 
have done, without chewing, but very soon his famished 
stomach revolted, and he threw them up, when one of his 
comrades carefully picked them up from the ground where 
they had fallen and ate them. "Oh, the rarity of Christian 
charity under the sun !" What a commentary upon Chris- 
tian progress ! After more than eighteen hundred years of 
zealous teaching and preaching, here was a Christian man 
starved by Christian men until he was reduced to the miser- 
able extremity of eating vomit like a dog. This systematic 
and diabolic plan of starving helpless prisoners by our Chris- 
tian brethren of the South stands unparalleled even by the 
annals of the most depraved and barbaric savages of any tribe 
or nation that was known at any time to have polluted and 
disgraced God's green earth. The starving of our prisoners 
by the rebels was not, as some apologists would have us 
believe, an incident of the war, which was brought about by 
a chance contingency ; far from it. This method of star- 
vation was deliberately planned and adopted by the author- 
ities of the Southern Confederacy as a means to an end, and 
that end was the weakening and reducing of the men com- 



114 I)icidents and Advcntuj-es in Rebeldoni. 

posing our army, and how well their design succeeded wit- 
ness the skeletons of nearly seventy thousand men, literally 
and absolutely starved to death in the prison hells of the 
South. As a matter of fact, there were about twenty thous- 
and more Union soldiers who were starved to death bv the 
rebels than were slain in battle during the whole course of the 
war. The inexplicable policy of our own government in re- 
fusing or neglecting toi exchange prisoners of war, or to en- 
force, by retributive treatment, the proper care of those who 
were unfortunate enough to fall into the rebels' hands, was in- 
deed reprehensible, and was only exceeded by the brutality of 
the rebs in the execution of their starving policy. It has often 
been said that the reljels really did the best they could to 
provide their prisoners with food and care, but that they 
could do no better for lack of money. This is untrue ; there 
never was a time during the whole course of the war that 
the rel)els could not have fed their prisoners plentifully had 
they so desired, statements and affidavits made in Pollard's 
"Lost Cause," and the "Life of Jefferson Davis" to the con- 
trary notwithstanding. TJars and perjurers ! From Jeft' 
Davis down. Their ports were blockaded ; no outlet for 
their products ; their country was literally tiooded with rice 
and other articles of food, and if there had been nothing but 
rice, men would not starve on rice. There is not a case on 
record of a rebel soldier starving to death, and yet these per- 
jurers swear that Union prisoners were fed the same quality 
and quantity of food as were their own soldiers. I call at- 
tention to another fact : Clothing and canned food were sent 
in large quantities from the North for our use, and were 
stored in a building within sight of Belle Isle, yet none of 
these things ever reached us, not a jot or tittle of them. 
After the rebels had stolen what they wished of them, the 
torch was applied, and the balance of them burned. This 
however was not done until Richmond was evacuated. This 
proves conclusively that the starving of the prisoners was de- 
liberately designed. It is the settled conviction of all who 
were in position to form judgment upon this subject, that had 



Starving the Prisoners. 



II 



our government retaliated by feeding- the rebel prisoners who 
fell into our hands in the same manner, as to quality and 
quantity of food, there never would have been a case of 
starvation to be reported from any of the prison pens 
of the South. 

This action on the part of General Grant, who had su- 
preme command of all the armies of the United States, pre- 
ferring to allow^ our comrades to starve and die by the thous- 
ands rather than chance the meeting of the exchanged 
Confederates in the field, is a sad blot on his otherwise 
famous record. 




CHAPTER XL 
The First Escape. 

On the 6th clay of October, 1864, one thousand three 
hundred prisoners, after beino- provided with what the rebels 
informed us were three days' rations, but which by the way 
were all consumed at one meal l)y most of the men, and I 
distinctly remember what an exertion of will power it cost 
me to even save a small piece of cornbread from my allow- 
ance ; we were loaded into box cars and started for another 
rebel starvation hell, located at Salisbury, N. C. 

Sixty-five men were crowded into each car which ren- 
dered it impossible for us either to sit or lie down, so we were 
obliged to stand like cattle in a stock train ; the doors on 
the right hand side of the cars were locked, while those on 
the left were open, with two guards stationed in each, and a 
number of guards also rode on the deck of each car. The 
cars were old rotten-looking things, and when the train once 
got under headway it rattled and banged in a way to drown 
all other sounds, so I set about kicking at the front end of the 
car in which 1 was riding, and I soon succeeded in break- 
ing a hole through it large enough to crawl out of if the op- 
portunity came. So giving one-half of my dog tent to my 
comrade, Isaac Mitchell, I told him that the first stop the 
train made I proposed to make a break for liberty and he 
said, "I will follow you." The first stop which the train 
made was for wood. This was twenty-three miles from 
Richmond. So- out I crawled, onto the bumpers, and down 
to the ground between the cars and out onto the side where 
the guards were standing in the doors. I started boldly 
along side the train toward the engine. One of the guards 
in the car next to the one I had escaped from as I passed, 
cried, "Halt, who goes dar ?" Without stopping I turned 
my head and said, "Who the devil are you talking to !" and 



Ftj'st Escape. 117 

I passed without further challeuge, it being so dark they 
could not distinguish the color of my clothing. Mitchell, 
who was partly out of the car on hearing them challenge me, 
drew back, so I was thus left alone. Going up to the engine, 
where a gang of darkies were throwing wood onto the tank 
I soon put the woodpile between myself and the cars, and 
stepping behind a large tree I waited until the train had 
pulled out and the negroes had gone. At about this stage 
of the game every white man, woman and child acted as spies 
for the Southern Confederacy, and whenever a strange face 
was seen in a communit}^ it excited suspicion and the strang- 
er was called to an immediate reckoning. I was fully aware 
of this fact, and had it confirmed through a bitter experience 
later on. Being alone, and having no one with whom to 
counsel, I carefully considered my desperate condition, and 
pondered upon the best course to pursue in effecting my 
escape. I was in the enemy's country. South of Richmond, 
with the rebel army between me and freedom. I was weak 
from starvation, without food and with insufficient clothing 
to keep me comfortable during the frosty nights ; no means 
of lighting a fire and not daring to show myself to ask for 
food. My case was indeed a desperate one, and I resolved 
to adopt desperate means in trying to reach the shelter of the 
old flag once more. I was already twenty miles and more 
south of Richmond. I planned to go still further south, and 
thereby either flank the right of the rebel army, or take the 
desperate chance of running their lines. I resolved to trust 
no one, not even the negroes, in fear of betrayal, and yet here 
I was in a country, the topography of which I was in perfect 
ignorance. I resolved also to travel both by day and night, 
and thus make the best possible time, and I further resolved 
to use every means, however desperate, anything short of 
murder itself, in accomplishing my undertaking to escape. In 
looking back to these foolish resolves and plans of mine, 
the things which to me, in my physical weakness seemed so 
feasible and easy of accomplishment, at this distance assume 
the aspect of impossibilities ; indeed when thinking of them 



ii8 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldom. 

in the light of my surrouiuhngs, they appear to me Hke the 
vagaries of an idiot. The gravest of all my mistakes was in 
not trusting my case in the hands of the negro, who would 
doubtless have guided, fed and concealed me until I reached 
the Union lines. But having resolved my course, I left my 
hiding place, returned to the railroad track and started in 
the direction which the train from which I had escaped, had 
gone. I soon came to a field of corn, alongside the track, 
which I entered and shelling two ears. T ate with great avid- 
ity, notwithstanding I had eaten the elaborate three days' 
rations with which the rebels had furnished us. After fill- 
ing my pockets with corn for future use I continued my 
journey until about midnight, when I discovered a fire burn- 
ing on the bank of a stream, which I rightly guessed to be 
the Appomattox River. The railroad crossed the river at this 
point on a trestle bridge, and there was a fort on the farther 
bank, and a guard walked back and forth over the bridge, 
while the fire which was located l)etween the fort and the 
bridge, threw a lurid light for a considerable distance over 
all surrounding objects. Approaching as near as possible 
without being observed, I waited until the guard had turned 
to walk toward the opposite side, then hurrying to the end 
of the bridge, I got onto the trestles underneath without be- 
ing detected, and crawling from trestle to trestle, while the 
guard walked overhead, at length 1 reached the abutment on 
the other side to find to my dismay that it stood in the water 
and was about thirty feet high, and that there was no possible 
way of getting around it. If I were to climb to the top of 
the bridge I should be in the full glare of the firelight, and 
readily seen by the sentinel, so there was nothing left me but 
to make my way back to the side whence I had come. This 
I did in safety, and circling to the left T hid myself in a swamp, 
designing to swim the river at daylight. Being tired and 
worn out I fell asleep and did not awaken until the sun was 
two hours high. Then after eating some corn I started for 
the river but did not reach it until about noon on account of 
its being a crooked, winding stream and I had lost the direc- 



First Escape. no 

tion of it. In my tramp from the swamp to the river I found 
a persimmon tree loaded with half-ripe fruit. Not being- al)le 
to resist the temptation I ate of it until my mouth was puck- 
ered so that I could whistle a great deal easier than I could 
sing. Reaching the river I stripped, and tying my cloth- 
ing in a bundle, tied it to my head and swam the river. 
While engaged in dressing I heard voices in the distance, 
which I located as coming from a plowed field lying in the 
direction I wished to go. Observing that a bushy ravine ran 
nearly across this field, I entered it and made my way to the 
end of it, which brought me opposite to a tobacco barn which 
stood at the edge of a woods. The voices I had heard were 
those of some negroes who were engaged in sowing wheat 
at the upper end of the field which was quite a distance away. 
Watching my chance T got into the barn, wdiich was empty, 
but I discovered several dinner buckets sitting about and a 
rebel jacket was hanging from a peg. I hastily explored the 
dinner pails in hope of finding something to eat, but in this 
I was disappointed ; they were all empty, but fastening to 
that jacket I made off into the woods where I took ofif my 
blue blouse and put on the rebel jacket. I tied my blouse up 
in my handkerchief and traveled. Soon after I struck the 
railroad track which 1 followed to the south again, and on 
coming to a house I sneaked into the garden nearby and 
pulled a number of very small turnips which I found to be 
so hot and biding I could not eat them. Resuming my jour- 
ney I passed through a little hamlet called Amelia Court 
House. This was sometime during the night, and going on 
a little way I turned into a clump of bushes and slept for a 
few hours. But I had made a mistake again. I should have 
turned to the north at the court house, but failed to do so. 
Keeping to the railroad I came to a ramshackle village of a 
few houses and sheds called Jetersville. It was here where 
General Lee's wagon train was captured later on. Seeing a 
wagon road which ran through the rear portion of the town, 
I took it, as I thought that the safer way. and I succeeded in 
passing through all right. Immediately lieyond the village 



I20 Incidents and Adventiives hi Rebeldom. 

the road ascended quite a hill and between this road and the 
railroad was an open pine woods through which I designed 
to pass and thus reach the railroad track again, hut, alas ! 
an arbiter of my fate was ascending that hill, on the other 
side, unbeknown to me. 

As I reached the foot of the hill and entered the woods, 
I saw two men lieave into view on top of the eminence, one of 
whom was in a buggy, the other mounted on a horse. The 
horseman dashed down upon me and with drawn revolver 
ordered me to surrender, which 1 did, and he marched me up 
to the party in the buggy, who proved to be the sheriff of 
Amelia County. The cavalier was a conscript officer and 
they were out for human game, and I w-as in it. The sheriff 
sul)jected me to a rigid questioning to wdiich I responded with 
a promptitude worthy of a better cause. I said I belonged to 
a North Carolina regiment, that my mother was sick, and 
that I had been given a furlough to go to see her, that I had 
lost the document, and a whole lot of lies which would have 
made the father of lies turn green with envy to have been 
able to imitate. But it was no go. That mullet-headed sheriff 
would not believe a word of the whole lot. He said I was 
no doubt an escaped Yankee, and he would be obliged to 
take me back and place me in jail at .\melia. My corn and per- 
simmon diet had left me in such a famished condition that I 
did not care much where he took me so there was something 
to eat in it. I demanded food, and he said he w-ould provide 
supper for me at his home, which was on the way to Amelia. 
Soon arriving at his house the sheriff ordered supper, which 
was shortly on the table and consisted of corn cakes, fried ba- 
con and sorghum molasses, and the facility with wdiich T hid 
tliat "grub" from view, caused the wench wdio baked the 
cakes to hustle, and the sheriff to conclude that he had cap- 
tured a gormandizer. While I was at supper, the wife of the 
sheriff was busy examining my bundle, wdiich I had left in 
another room. I found the contents of my pack very much 
disarranged and the sheriff more confirmed in his belief that 
I was an escaped Yank. But he seemed a very humane sort 



Recapitire. I2i 

of a man, and inclined to give me the l)enefit of any doubts 
he might entertain in regard to my loyalty to the South. 
But of course I could not prove up on my claim. After sup- 
per the buggy was brought out again, and we got in and 
drove to Amelia Court House. On arriving there the sheriff 
concluded to send me on to Richmond instead of placing me 
in jail at the court house, so he took me to the depot, and 
while waiting for the train, a number of rebels, both young 
and old, lired cjuestions at me, which 1 answered to the l^est 
of my ability. Finally a man came in and said he was the 
major of the First North Carolina Regiment. Now this was 
the command I had told the sheriff T was a member of, so you 
can guess I felt sort of streaked. Well the major said he had 
been desperately wounded, and was home while his wound 
was healing, and he proceeded to question me. but I was wary 
and cautious, believing all the while that he was a liar, as well 
as myself, for I reasoned that if he was a North Carolinian, 
how did it come that his home was here in Virginia ? Final- 
ly he asked, 'AVho is colonel of the First North Carolina ?" 
"Colonel Anderson," said I. Now by G — d you lie," said the 
major, "for Colonel Hawkins commands that regiment, and 
you are nothing but a d — m — ed Yankee." "D — n it," said 
I, "you have not seen the regiment for over a year and how 
do you know what changes have taken place in that time. 
And I believe that you lie also, for if you belong to the First 
North Carolina, how does it come that I find you living here 
in Virginia ?" I knew that the rebels brigaded their men 
from the different states by themselves. The sheriff laughed 
heartily and this answer shut him up, but another of them 
said, "Well I know you are a Yankee anyhow^" "And how- 
do you know it ?" said I. "Why," said he, "you would git as 
mad as h — 11 when the major called you a Yankee if you had- 
n't been one." I answ^ered that fellow^ w-ith a contemptuous 
look, and mentally resolved that the next time T was called 
a damned Yankee when I was honestly trying to pose as a 
rebel, I would "git as mad as hell." Shortly after this ques- 
tioning, a train pulled in and I was handed over to the tender 



122 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldom. 

mercies of a sergeant by the sheriff, who told him that I was 
an escaped Yankee, and that he should hand me over to the 
proper official at Richmond. The sergeant took me into the 
forward coach and put me in among a lot of rebel deserters 
whom he was taking to the city under a strong guard. This 
car had formerly been used as a baggage car, with a door at 
either end, and wide side doors in the center, but it had been 
htted up with seats and transformed into- a sort of a passenger 
coach. The sergeant appreciating the desperate character 
of the Yankee whom he had in charge, selected a trustworthy 
rebel whose special commission was to carefully guard mc, 
and right royally did he attend to his duty. He sat on the 
same seat with me and acted as my twin automaton ; when 
I got up, he got up, when T walked the car for exercise, he 
walked too, when I sat down, he sat down also. Under the 
seat was the knapsack of my guard, and the car being 1)adly 
lighted, I took advantage of it to slip my hand down between 
my knees, and lifting the flap of said knapsack, I "pilfered" 
therefrom a rebel vest and three pocket handkerchiefs, which 
I succeeded in placing under the breast of my jacket, unob- 
served by my attendant who was sitting at my side. The 
handkerchiefs were marked with the name "Canon," on the 
corners in indelible ink. I kept one of these for many years 
as a souvenir of that night's experience, the other two were 
disposed of as will be related later on ; and now after the 
lapse of nearly a third of a century, I will say, that if Mr. 
Canon will make himself known I will cheerfully make him 
full restitution and apology, and further, in order to em- 
])hasize fraternity between the Blue and the Gray, I will set 
up a supper, a la Hotel de Libby. 

On arriving at Richmond, and while the sergeant was 
marching his deserters out of the left side door onto the 
platform, at the depot, my guard turned his back to me while 
buckling on his cartridge box. Instantly jumping from the 
opposite door, I ran up among the cars in the yard until I 
reached a street. Here I paused a moment to see whether 
1 was being pursued. I was not followed so I hastily put on 



Second Escape. 123 

the rebel vest and tied my blue one up in my bundle. My 
uniform was now half reb, and going out onto the street, I 
hastily decided to try to- make my way to Fredericksburg, 
as I was more familiar with the country about that place. 
While pondering over the uncertainties of my chances of 
ultimate escape, I was brought to a sudden halt in seeing 
Castle Thunder and Libby Prison looming up before me in 
all their grim majesty. I realized now that I was on Carey 
street. I hurriedly crossed over by way of a side street to 
Broad, and boldly started up through the very heart of the 
city on this street to reach the Fredericksburg depot. On 
reaching the markethouse I saw a policeman engaged in 
lighting the gas. I approached him and asked the way to 
the depot. He answered me that it was three miles directly 
up Broad street. I then continued my way until I came to 
the Central depot, and knowing that just twenty-three miles 
out, at Hanover Junction, this Central railroad crossed the 
one leading into Fredericksburg, and fearing, should I con- 
tinue this direct course to that point, that I would be pulled 
in, I took out along the line of the Central road. After getting 
out about three miles from the city limits I observed a man 
who seemed to be drunk staggering along ahead of me, and 
thinking that I would be able to hold my own with him even 
should he prove hostile, I quickened my steps and soon over- 
took him, and as I w-as passing him he said, "By G — d ole fel- 
ler, you are going to run the blockade to-night !" This 
greeting somewhat alarmed me, but I replied, "Oh, I guess 
not." "Yes you are," said he, and added, "If I only had my 
shirts here I'd go 'long with you." These words relieved 
my fears and I admitted that it was my intention to run the 
lines if I could. We then sat down and talked awhile, and I 
tried to induce him to go with me. but could not do so. He 
said everything he possessed in the world was in camp, and 
he said he would be arrested on his return to camp as he had 
been on a protracted drunk in Richmond and had overstaid 
his time. By questioning I received the following infor- 
mation from him. His name was Frank Hardv, and he was 



124 Incide7its and Advetitures in Rebeldoni. 

Irish by birth ; that he was sick and tired of the reljelUon, and 
would desert at the first opportunity. He was a member of 
Company C, Nineteenth \'irginia Battahon ; that his cap- 
tain's name was Hethering-ton. and his colonel's was Ander- 
son, and that they were in camp at Mechanicsville, engaged in 
guarding the line of the Chickahominy. He also told me 
how the guard was posted at the bridge at the crossing of 
the stream ; and he requested me if I got through to go to 
a man by the name of Spofford who kept a saloon in Alexan- 
dria, and tell him that Hardy was going to run the blockade 
at the first opportunity. He then gave me his pass, saving 
that it might be of use to me, and shaking my hand, wished 
me success in my perilous vmdertaking, and bade me good- 
bye. 

The pass given me by Hardy was dated Richmond. Oc- 
tober 5th. 1864. and read as follows : "Frank Hardy will im- 
mediately rejoin his regiment on the Mechanicsville road." 
Signed, Brigadier General Gardner, commanding at Rich- 
mond. Va. I have not been in Alexandria since meeting 
Hardy and sO' of course I could not deliver his message to 
SpofYord. Neither have T learned whether he rejoined his 
regiment as he was directed to do in the pass, nor wdiether 
the opportunity for running the blockade, as he called it. ever 
came to him. but of one thing I am sure, that if Frank 
Hardy is still in the land of the living, even at this late day. I 
would be glad to hear from or see him. 

Soon after parting from Hardy I came to a field of stand- 
ing sorghum cane. I cut a stalk of it and chew^ing it. swal- 
lowed the juice and that constituted my supper then taking 
some more of the cane. I placed it imder my arm for future 
use and proceeded on my way rejoicing. And reaching the 
Chickahominy. 1 crossed it on the railroad bridge without 
encountering a guard. 1 found a clump of bushes just beyond 
which seemed to ofl^er reasonable seclusion. I crept in and be- 
ing very weary I soon fell asleep, but on awakening I was 
chilled to the bone, and was obliged to resume my tramp to 
get my thinned blood into circulation again, and as I ])lodded 



Second Escape. 125 

along I was wishing I could get hold of some matches so I 
could fire the bridges and the wood which were ranked along 
the railroad on which I was traveling. Not stopping to think 
for one moment that such a course would result in my cer- 
tain and speedy capture, and that if captured, with such a 
charge of vandalism lodging against me, I would have been 
hung higher than Haman, without judge or jury ; that such 
an idea should ever have entered the head of a sane person is 
past all comprehension, and then to think that T was deterred 
from such a foolhardy enterprise by the merest accident, 
causes me to shudder. Reference to said accident will be 
made hereafter. 

On Sunday morning. Octol)er 9th, and the fourth day 
after escaping from the box car, at about the noon hour I 
came to a large clear space, and looking about me. I discern- 
ed a fort and I at once concluded that I was in close proxim- 
ity to the South Ann River. Prudence at once suggested 
that my safety lay in hiding until night came on. but my fam- 
ishing condition and mv overwhelming desire to reach the 
Union lines urged me forward and lured me on to my undoing, 
as the sequel wall show. 

Leaving the railroad I took across the fields so as to 
strike the river about a mile below the fort, but as I reached 
the brink of the stream, two rebels rose from behind the bank 
and aiming their rifles at me called upon me to surrender, and 
as there was nothing else to do I responded to the demand 
with the best grace possible. I had been seen from the fort and 
these two soldiers had been dispatched to intercept me. I 
\vas marched up to the fort and taken before the captain com- 
manding for examination. This officer was a venerable ap- 
pearing, gray-headed man of about sixty-five summers. I 
should guess. His company belonged to a resen'e corps and 
was composed largely of old men and young boys. It will 
be remembered that I still held the pass which had been given 
me by Hardy. I showed it to the captain and tried to have 
him think it read Fredericksburg instead of Mechanicsville, 
but without success. He said his orders were verv strict in 



126 



Incidents and Adveftturex in Rebeldom. 



regard to letting any one pass that point, and that even if my 
pass had read Fredericksburg he could not honor it, as the 
time limit named had expired several days ago, so he said he 
should be obliged to send me on to Richmond. As I had eat- 
en nothing but raw corn and unripe persimmons since I sup- 
ped with the sheriff and was famishing for food. I asked the 
captain for something- to eat. lie answered in a surly man- 
ner that he had nothing for me, but called up an old man 
about sixty years of age and a boy of fourteen or fifteen years, 
and ordered them to take me to a fire which was burninof in 




"Maddern Hell.' 



a corner of the fort, and keep watch over me until the train 
came along. In taking me over to where the fire was, the 
lioy, who' no doubt had an exalted opinion of his own im- 
portance, strutted along close to my side very like a young 
fighting cock w^ould be expected to do. I said to him, "Von 
need not be sO' particular to keep close to me, I'm not going 
to run away." Patting the old Harper's Ferry musket with 
which he was armed, he said, "By G — d, I know you'll not 
run while I've got this gnu, 'case I believe you's a d — m — d 
Yankee, anyhow." Now, remcml)ering my promise to gTt as 



Recapture. 127 

mad as "Hell" when the next fellow called me a Yankee, I 
said, "See here, young fellow , if you hadn't that gun I'd 
smash your nose all over your face. I'd teach you to call me 
a Yankee." The old man then said to the youngster, "Shut 
up, G — d d — m you. He might be as good a soldier as you 
and a d — m sight better, too." This effectually squelched 
the young warrior and he had nothing more to say to me. 
I then asked the old man for something to eat, and he an- 
swered that they had nothing. I told him I had had nothing 
to eat for two- days, and that I knew they had something that 
would satisfy hunger, for they could not stay there without 
food. He then brought me a piece of bacon and two large 
sweet potatoes, and I soon had those potatoes in the hot ashes 
and the meat toasting on a stick. About the time I had fin- 
ished my meal the train came in sight, and the captain sent 
a man to flag it to stop. I then asked him to return me my 
pass. He said, "I will send it to Richmond." I said, "You 
are sending me there and I can take it ; it belongs tO' me and 
I want it." He then gave me the pass, and put me on the 
front car of the train, telling the conductor that I was an es- 
caped Yankee. Now in the rear car of this train they had 
thirty-two enlisted men and two ofiicers who had been cap- 
tured from some Pennsylvania regiment. They had been ta- 
ken at Salem, in the valley by Mosby. I think these prison- 
ers belonged tO' the One Hundred and Sixteenth Pennsylva- 
nia Volunteers, and they were being taken to Libby in charge 
of a rebel captain, and were amply guarded. The conductor 
took me back through the train, and opening the door of the 
rear car put me in among the Yankees, and neglected to tell 
the officer in charge that I was an escaped "Yank." I took a 
seat beside one of the Yankees without speaking to any one, 
Init I was doing a whole lot of thinking. I had very soon 
formulated a plan, somewhat desperate and dangerous. I con- 
cede, but I had worked myself up to the required pitch for 
desperate undertakings. And now it became necessary for 
me to play the role of injured innocence, so I boldly approach- 
ed the rebel officer and said, "Captain, see here. I'm no Yan- 



128 Incidents and Adz'ciiturcs in Rebeldotn. 

kee. and I don't want to sit on the same seat with a d — m — d 
Yankee. This will tell yon who T am." T said, handing- him 
the pass. He read it. and tnrning- to me said. "Well, sit 
down on the seat there with the ^"uard." Observing that the 
officer did not seem to qnestion the legality of the pass, T 
said. "Captain, I am very anxions to join my company. I 
wish yon wonld take me to the provost marshal and have 
me sent to the soldiers' retreat, so that I can get back to mv 
command as soon as possible." He said. "All right, I will fix 
it as soon as we get to Richmond." So I sat beside the 
gnard until Richmond was reached, and on getting off the 
train the captain asked me to walk down to Libby with him, 
where he was to deliver his prisoners, and then he would g^o 
with me to see the provost marshal. .\s we walked along 
on our way to Libby the captain very kindly pointed out to 
me several places of interest, among which, I remember, was 
the State House, Jeff Davis' residence, the Spootswood Hotel, 
as well as several other places of interest, all of which were 
described by him with apparent ])leasure. While 1 was walk- 
ing on the sidewalk with the captain, and holding this "tete- 
a-tete" with him, the ])Oor prisoners of war were Ijeing march- 
ed down through the middle of the street, followed by a mob 
of urchins who were yelling and shouting after them, and call- 
ing them "Blue-bellied Yankees," and all sorts of euphonius 
names, and throwing mud upon them. We finally reached 
the notorious prison and while the newly arrived prisoners 
were Ijeing counted off I went into the prison office and 
warmed myself at the stove. When the ]:)Oor felloAvs had 
been counted off they were thrust into a living hell ; the 
ca])tain took his receipt for them of the prison authorities, 
and we started for the provost marshal's office. I was now 
about to "beard the lion in his den," l)ut I did this with a set- 
tled conviction, that whether I succeeded or failed in passing 
examination loefore the provost it was all one ; I was dead 
sure of detection in the end, for if I went to the soldiers' re- 
treat and ])assed there I would be discovered as a bogus 
k^rank Hardy on being taken to Company C, Nineteenth 



Recapture. 129 

Virginia Battalion, because the officers of that organization 
would know that I never bejonged to them. And the most 
serious aspect of the whole case lay in this, that if I failed to 
satisfy the provost that I was a rebel soldier, I would be 
caught in the very act of masquerading about the streets of 
Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy, in a rebel uniform. 
In either case I was sure of imprisonment in Castle Thun- 
der, a trial by court martial, and probably on the charge of 
being a spy. These desperately hazardous risks had been 
taken solely that I might obtain food, for I could have easily 
escaped from the captain at any time after our arrival at 
Richmond. My previous sufferings from starvation and ex- 
posure had been terrible, and only an iron constitution, 
toughened by the active, outdoor life of a soldier, could have 
enabled me to endure it as long as I had. And when I con- 
sidered that both food and assistance could have been se- 
cured from the negroes for the asking, and that, too, with- 
out risk, I can only wonder at my stupidity. Well, after 
quite a long walk we brought up at the provost marshal's of- 
fice and entered. I was, as may easily be imagined, in no hap- 
py frame of mind. The captain transacted some business and 
talked with the provost for a while, and withdrawing left me 
to the tender mercies of that boss inquisitor of the Southern 
Confederacy. Calling me up to his desk the following ques- 
tions were propounded and answered : "What is your 
name ?" ''Frank Hardy." "Where do you belong ?" 
"Company C, Nineteenth Virgmia Battalion," "Who is your 
colonel ?" "Colonel Anderson." "Who is your captain ?" 
"Captain Hetherington." "Where are you stationed ?" 
"At Mechanicsville." "Where were you going ?" "To Han- 
over Junction." "What were you going there for ?" "To see 
my wife and children." "How long since you have seen 
them ?" "I have not seen them for six months." "Well, 
why did you not rejoin your regiment on this pass ?" "I 
got on a drunk, sir, and overstaid my time." "That will do," 
said the provost, and calling a clerk told him to make me 
an order for the soldiers' retreat, and go show me where it 



130 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldom. 

was. The clerk wrote out the order, and callino- to a North 
CaroHnian who was sitting in the office, and who was des- 
tined for the same place, he started with me for the retreat. 
In going out the Carolinian tripped over the door sill and fell 
headlong into the street. The clerk and I laughed heartily at 
his awkwardness, which seemed to have the effect of putting 
the clerk into great good humor, and he talked pleasantly as 
we walked along, and just as we reached the retreat he said. 
'"By G — d, old fellow, I expected to see you go to Castle 
Thunder, for it is not often that a man gets off as easy as you 
did." I replied that I considered myself lucky, and was verv 
glad 1 had gotten off so easily. C>n arriving at the Richmond 
Hotel, as rebels who w^ere confined there called the retreat, 
the Johnnies began calling out, "Fresh fish, fresh fish." "New 
arrivals at the Richmond Hotel," etc.. etc. But without 
paying any attention to their jeers, I went upstairs and took 
quarters on the second floor under a gas jet. The Carolinian 
stopped on the first floor. The retreat was a large three- 
story building, and like Libl)y, had formerly been a tobacco 
store-house. It was closely guarded, the authorities no 
doubt being suspicious of its inmates. Having arrived too 
late for supper I lay down under rhe gas jet and went to 
sleep. About one o'clock a. m. I was awakened by the shuf- 
fling of feet and excited human voices, and was surprised to 
find a lot of rebels surrounding me. They proved to be 
North Carolina Tar-heels, just out of the woods, and con- 
scripts from that state. They had never before seen gas 
1)urning, and they would blow it out and relight it, and feel 
the pipe to see if it were hot, and then give expression 
to their astonishment to each other. As I had put uj) at this 
"hotel" for the express purpose of securing grub, I waited 
until they were all asleep, then I proceeded to search several 
of their knapsacks and haversacks for food. I found each 
knapsack contained five or six plugs of tobacco and nothing 
else, while their haversacks were filled with corn-meal only, 
so I was balked eft'ectually in my design to steal food from 
that crowd, and it was evident that thcv were a1)out as much 



Recapture. 131 

in need of food as I was. The next morning- the Tar-heels 
wanted hoe-cake, and they wanted it badly, but had no way 
of baking it. I was the proprietor of a saucer-shaped half 
of a canteen, which I had concealed inside my pants by 
suspending it by a string from a suspender button. I was not 
slow to discover that I was a monojwlist. I was sole owner 
of the only bake-pan in or about that ranch, and I proceeded 
to work my special privileges for all there was in them. I 
would rent my bake-pan at a stipulated price, payable only in 
hoe-cakes. I suspect that the tax I levied upon those Tar- 
heels for the use of my baker would be classed by latter-day 
statesmen as high-tariff. Anyhow I did a rattling business 
for a short time, storing my revenue in my bundle for future 
exigencies. But after a while l)reakfast was called, and that 
burst my short-lived monoply all to flinders. Our meals 
at this retreat were served in the following manner : The 
men to be fed were formed in open rank, and a negro, bearing 
a tray of l)read, would march down the line and as he passed 
each man would reach in and take a piece ; meat or other 
food was served in the same way. .V half loaf of Ijread was 
served to each man, with other food in proportion, every 
meal. The food was clean and of good quality, and of suf- 
ficient quantity ; no man would starve or even suffer hunger 
oil such food. There vcre no Ijeef-heads, nor bugp-v peas, 
nor rotten bacon served here, as was the case with the pris- 
oners of war. With them, as l)efore stated, a loaf was di- 
vided among four men twice a day, while here a loaf was 
served to two men three times a da>-. I had now had practi- 
cal experience, which proved beyond question that the food 
served to the rebel soldiers was more than four times as much 
in quantity and far lietter in quality than was given to the 
prisoners. I again positively declare, that all rebel assevera- 
tions and affidavits contradictory of these statements, by 
whomsoever made, are wilfull lies and rank perjuries. After 
I became familiar with the mode of distributing food here 1 
fared sumptuously. I would fall into line at the head of the 
column at the stair landing. Taking my piece of bread I 



132 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldom. 

would frequently run behind the line to the foot of the col- 
umn, and take another piece, thus securing double rations. 
By this means I was kept fairly well supplied. 

I was here in personal contact with rebels from all por- 
tions of the Confederacy, moved among and talked with 
them, entirely free from any suspicion on their part, and while 
the great majority of them were densely ignorant, there were 
some who were intelligent and well posted on the current top- 
ics of the day. I learned that it was the universal opinion of 
the rank and file of the rebel army that should General George 
B. McClelland be elected President of the United States at 
the then ensuing election, that England w'ould at once rec- 
ognize the independence oi the Confederacy and the war 
would be over, but should Lincoln be re-elected it meant a 
continuation of the struggle, with very little chance for their 
final success, as they said their resoiu'ces were about exhaust- 
ed. They also said that McClelland had been the best quar- 
termaster they had ever had, as he had furnished them with 
supplies which they could not otherwise have obtained. 
Amongst the rebels in this room was a young Marylander, a 
man of tine appearance and seeming intelligence, whom the 
rebels suspected of being a spy or a Yankee. I was anxious to 
have a talk with him, but I feared it might excite suspicion 
against myself, and so- refrained. As I had collected enough 
bread by this time to^ supply me for several days, and had also 
completely filled the aching void beneath my jacket, I began 
considering the situation. I reasoned that I was liable to 
be sent at any time to the reljel regiment to which 1 had sat- 
isfied the provost marshal I belonged, and in that case I 
should, when my fraudulent representation was discovered, be 
sent to Castle Thunder. Hence my only hope of avoiding 
such a calamity was in escaping from the retreat. I had been 
thinking of this, but the chance seemed almost overwhelming 
against succeeding, as the place was so thoroughly guarded, 
and a sentry always accompanied an inmate when he had oc- 
casion to visit the out-house. 

I traded my shoes for a pair of rebel shoes, which were 



Recapture. 133 

tan colored, and I had exchanged my l)kie cap for a rebel cap 
and received a dollar to boot, and I sold the two handker- 
chiefs that I had stolen from the knapsack of my gnard on 
the train for nine dollars, so T had ten dollars cash capital, be- 
side the several days' rations of bread, so I felt that I was pret- 
ty comfortal)ly fixed for almost any kind of an enterprise. 
Beside I now had a full-fledged rebel uniform, excepting the 
pants, and as a great many of their soldiers wore blue pants, 
which they had taken from prisoners, I was easy on that 
score. 

At this time both Lee's and Earley's armies were in des- 
perate need of recruits, and the three hundred North Carolina 
conscripts, of whom I have spoken, were divided equally 
between these two armies. Thinking that I saw a glimmer 
of hope of escape in this allotment of men I just put myself in 
position to be counted ofT with the Tar-heels which were as- 
signed to Earley's army, and one morning just about daylight 
v^e were marched out of the retreat on to the streets of 
Richmond. While the Johnnies were busily engaged in fran- 
tic efforts to get ignorant Tar-heels into an alignment, I 
was keeping an eye to the main chance, and seeing a favorable 
opportunity I quietly dodged out between two of the guards. 
I slipped up a cross street and escaped them. After walking 
for awhile I came upon an Irishman who was engaged in 
taking down the shutters from the window\s of a small store. 
I stepped in and purchased a loaf of wheat bread of about 
the size of a large rusk, for which I paid one dollar, and a 
block of matches for half a dollar. I then asked the way to 
the Fredericksburg railroad station, and being directed I 
started for that point. I had hastily decided to try the Fred- 
ericksburg route again, and on reaching the railroad [ start- 
ed for that city. Two or three miles out this road passed 
through the outer line of the Richmond fortifications. Here 
1 discovered the works to be so closely guarded that an at- 
tempt to get through the lines would be useless. I was oblig- 
ed to turn back, so returning to Richmond I boldly walked 
down Broad street until I reached the Central Depot, and 
started out that line again. 



134 Incidejits and Adventures in Rebcldom. 

After traveling out for several miles, it being a sunny 
day, I concluded to skirmish for graybacks, as I had had no 
opportunity of attending to this highly important operation 
since leaving Bell Isle. So going into a dense thicket I re- 
moved my clothing, and found the enemy in strong force, en- 
trenched along the seams of every garment. Soon the crack, 
crack, of their plump bodies exploding between my thumb 
nails, sounded like the pattering fire of a distant skirmish line. 
I set out to keep count of the number slain, but soon conclud- 
ed that it would be too great a strain on my mental facul- 
ties. When I al)andoned the count it had extended way up 
into the hundreds, but I pressed the fight until every enemy 
was left cold in death on the field. Then replacing my cloth- 
ing I resumed my tramp, and soon reached the Chickahominy 
River and succeeded in crossing that historic stream in safe- 
ty ; its waters were still as black and turbid as when Mc- 
Clelland encamped his magnificent army along its swampy 
banks. The railroad bridge which spanned the river at this 
point was a wooden structure, and I was considering the ad- 
visability of firing it in daylight when I noticed an apple tree 
growing near, which had several apples hanging from its 
boughs. I picked up S(^nie stones and was throwing to knock 
the fruit from the trees, when my block of matches went off 
in my pocket, and the means of starting a fire, either to dam- 
age rebel property or for my own convenience or comfort, 
vanished like a morning dew. The loss of my matches fell 
upon me like a crushing calamity, especially when I remem- 
bered how I had previously sufl'ered in my efforts to escape, 
without means of starting a fire by which to cook a morsel of 
food or to warm my frost benumbed limbs, and I just sat 
down on the end of a tie and cried, as though some great 
grief had overtaken me. But in looking l)ack over the con- 
ditions which at that time surrounded me I can clearly discern 
the hand of a kind Providence in the loss of that block of 
matches, for if 1 had been possessed of the means of so doing 
1 would have doubtless fired that bridge, and later, as the se- 
quel will show, I should have fallen into the hands of the ene- 



Half Reb and Half Ya7ik. 135 

my, with the change of wantonly destroying- property stand- 
ing over against me. and as the rebels executed without mercy 
any person against whom an act of vandalism was proven, 
the jig would have been all up with me. And another thing, 
which after the lapse of time and much cool reflection, I 
have never been able to fully comprehend, and that is this : 
How ever I could ha\'e hoped to escape from the network 
of obstacles with which I was surrounded, without informa- 
tion in regard to the topography of the country or the po- 
sition of the enemy's lines, or in fact anything else which a 
man lacking a faithful guide could have built the slightest 
hope upon to aid him in escaping. T have, however, con- 
cluded that it must have been the recollection of the ease 
with which I had fooled the provost and traversed the streets 
of Richmond in broad daylight unquestioned. I say I am 
quite sure that these master strokes of diplomacy, as I was 
pleased to regartl them, were the procuring cause of this 
rash undertaking. 

One very important thing in regard to circumstances 
as they existed in Richmond I had failed to take into ac- 
count. There the peoplejelt secure, because they were, so to 
speak, within the walls of their city, where they had no 
thought of a Yankee spy or any other Yankee being at 
large. But it was different in the suburlis and outside the 
lines of the fortifications of the city proper. Here the peo- 
ple stood in momentary fear and expectation of cavalry raids 
and were suspicious of every one not belonging to their im- 
mediate neighborhood. And in regard to my success in im- 
posing upon the provost marshal I do not believe there was 
an intelligent rebel in all Richmond who for one moment 
supposed that there was any Yankee so devoid of the prover- 
bial astuteness and caution of the race, as to attempt to pass 
himself off as a rebel soldier and masquerade through the 
streets of the city in a uniform, half Reb and half Yank. 

After bemoaning for a while the loss of my matches, I 
resumed my journey, sad and to some extent dispirited, and 
on arriviner in sight of the fort at the South Ann River, 



136 Incidents a7id Adventures in Rebeldoni. 

where it will l)e remembered 1 was captured on the occasion 
of mv former attempt at escape, I turned aside into the 
Inishes and lav concealed until the shades of nig-ht had fallen 
over the scene. I then started out again, making a sweeping 
detour to the right, thus striking the river below the fort. I 
stripped off my clothing and swam the stream, and a cold 
bath it was, I can assure you, for the night was chill and 
frosty, and on getting out of the w-ater I was seized with a 
severe rigor, and was scarcely able to dress myself, my teeth 
rattling like castanets, and I feared lest their chattering 
should be heard by the rebels in the fort. With great diffi- 
culty I made off and soon coming to a field of shocked corn, 
I crawled under a shock and remained for a time, in hope of 
getting my chilled blood to circulating more freely, but in 
this I was disappointed, for the longer I remained the colder 
I became, and so was obliged to resume my tramp. About 
daylight 1 came upon a small hut occupied by a negro family. 
It was surrounded by woods, near the railroad, and there was 
standing in the door of the cabin a middle-aged negress, who 
upon my approach stepped out and asked me if T had any 
clothing of which I wished to dispose. I replied in the nega- 
tive and passed on. In this I realized later on I had made a 
mistake, for here was an opportunity of disposing of my blue 
vest and blouse, the silent witnesses of my being a Yankee 
soldier. I should have taken immediate advantage of this 
chance, and without doubt I could have made myself known 
with perfect safety and probably assisted through the lines, 
or at the least have obtained valuable information in regard 
to the country through which I must pass if I escaped at all, 
but being fearful of betrayal I passed on to my fate. 

It was still early morning wdien I arrived at Hanover 
Junction. Our cavalry having recently burned the bridge at 
that point, all passengers had to be transferred there. The 
Fredericksburg train was standing there awaiting the ar- 
rival of the Richmond train, and as I walked by the engine 
the engineer eyed me very closely, but said nothing, and I 
trudged on in the direction of Fredericksburg. Several 



Engiiieei' Siispinoiis. 137 

miles out from Hanover, as T was passing throuob a sand 
cut on the railroad, I encountered a blowing adder, and it 
seemed to dispute my passage, as it was coiled ready for a 
spring, while it kept up a hissing which would have done 
credit to a full grown "gray gander." He was a large fel- 
low, and as there was neither club or stone to be found in the 
cut I skirmished around and finally secured a piece of rotten 
tie, which showed its weakness at every blow. But by dint 
of perseverance I finally managed to kill the reptile. I was 
much surprised to find a snake abroad at that season of the 
year, it being well along in the month of October, Init he 
evidently was out for business, as he made no efi^ort to escape 
while I was searching for something with which to slav him. 

Shortly after getting through the cut, the train which I 
had passed while it was standing at the junction, passed me 
on its way to Fredericksburg, and again that engineer eyed 
me very suspiciousl}'. Al)out noon, as I sat resting, conceal- 
ed in some bushes, two men with guns and dogs made their 
appearance on the opposite side of the railroad, and it look- 
ed for a time as though T should 1)e discovered, but they fi- 
nally went their way, and I again resumed my line of march. 
Toward evening I arrived at Guinea Station, eight miles dis- 
tant from Fredericksburg. This place was made up of a 
water tank on one side of the railroad and three or four hous- 
es on the other side, one of which stood near the track. 

As I passed the house of which I spoke as standing near 
the track, a woman who was sitting in the door with her sew- 
ing, asked me for the news of the day and I paused long 
enought to tell her about Mosby's capture of the Yankees in 
the valley, and then started on, laying to my soul the unction 
that I was safely past another bad place in my road. But as 
soon as my back was turned a rebel soldier came out of the 
house, and stealing softly up behind me ordered me to halt, 
and on facing about, I found myself gazing into the muzzle of 
a big navy revolver. His questions came thick and fast. 
Who are you ? Where do you belong ? And, where are 
you going ? And he did not give me time to answer those 



138 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldo7n. 

questions in the prescribed Yankee fashion either, that would 
have been, you know, by asking him question for question. 
But I want to remark that a revolver loaded to the muzzle 
and in the hands of an enemy, and pointing at you, is a pow- 
erful persuader, and has a tendency to sort of make you 
answer questions whether you want to or not. So I said my 
name is Frank Hardy, that T belonged to Mosby's command, 
that my horse had been killed at Salem in the valley, that [ 
lived near Fredericksburg, and that I was going home to get 
another horse, beside a lot of other stuff I told him, all of 
which was manufactured for the occasion, and as I conclud- 
ed, justified by the end sought to be accomplished. The 
young soldier was favorably impressed by my seemingly 
straightforward tale and was inclined to let me go. but by 
this time two or three of the shaggy, tobacco-squirting na- 
tives had gathered about us and these strenuously objected to 
my being released. They said I might be a spy, or an es- 
caped Yankee prisoner, who might bring the Yankee cavalry 
in to "cut hell outen we'uns." Well, the soldier said he 
would have nothing more to do with me, so the natives took 
me in charge, and handed me over to the loving care of a 
train detective on the arrival of the train from Fredericks- 
burg. This detective was a stalwart six-footer of a fire-eat- 
ing, Don Furioso, bombastic sort of a man, in fact his hide 
seemed stulTed wath bombast and selfsufficiency, that one ob- 
serving him would conclude that if the destinies of the rotten 
Confederacy did not wholly rest upon his shoulders, that he 
at least was the chief corner stone. He took me into the for- 
ward car, where there were sitting three or four brutal ap- 
pearing fellows. Sallow of complexion, they were with counte- 
nances which were as pleasant to look upon as that of a Ben- 
gal tiger. Stripping of¥ my clothing he examined pockets, 
linings and seams, also my cap, its rim, my shoes and shoe- 
soles, and was rewarded for his trouble by finding nothing, as 
I was not so much of a fool as to commit anything to paper. 
In answer to his cjuestions I told him that I was unable to 
read or write ; 1 also gave him the Mosby fabrication, but dur- 



Blue Vest and Blouse, 139 

ing his search of my clothing he unearthed from my vest 
pocket a printed song which he transferred to his pocket. 
This particular song was entitled, "The Arms of Abraham." 
The first verse and chorus were as follows, and will, I think, 
be recognized by all comrades : 

My true love is a soldier in the army now to-day, 
T'was this cruel war that made him, he had to go away. 
The draft it was that took him, it was a cruel blow, 
It took him for a conscript, but he didn't want to go. 

CHORUS : 

He's gone, he's gone, as meek as any lamb. 
They took him, yes, they rook him. to the arms of 
Abraham. 

As soon as I had replaced my garments, the detective 
turned suddenly and handing me the song said, "Sing that 
song for us !" "Oh, I can't read," said I, handing it back to 
him. He was very angry because of his failure to entrap me, 
and he exclaimed, "You'r a G — d d — m liar I I never in my 
life saw a Yankee who couldn't read and write." As I was 
not in a position to resent this imputation against my ve- 
racity, as the boys say, I was obliged to swallow it. This 1 
did with very good grace, for the compliment paid the Yan- 
kee intelligence, in his declaration that they could all read 
and write, had softened the impeachment greatly. I had be- 
gun to lay to my heart the unction that I had successfully 
baffled him, when he reached for my bundle, and untying it 
he brought out my blue vest and blouse. .He was now furi- 
ous, and drawing his revolver and placing it within a foot of 

my forehead said, "Yu of a Yankee, 

I've a mind to blow yo' brains out, and by G — d I would 
shoot yo' but I'll have yo' hung for a spy when I get yo' to 
Richmond." Under these embarrassing circumstances 1 could 
say nothing, but I looked him in the eye until he lowered his 
revolver, then I calmly sat down on a seat next the window 



140 



Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldom. 



and observed the landscape as we whirled by it. I hoped 
to discover some scene of beauty which might serve to divert 
my mind from its unpleasant occupation. Those tiger-faced 
men. to whom reference has been made, sat there taking no 
part in the conversation, but evidently enjoying the act much 
as a theater-goer might the tragedy just at the point where 
the villain is to be detected and exposed. On arriving at 
Hanover Junction, where the train halted for a short time, I 
purchased some apples from a lad at the car window, at which 
I nonchalantly munched all the way in to Richmond, and 







I'll Have You Hung For a Spy. 



while outwardly I appeared so careless and composed, there 
was a tunnilt transpiring within; indeed I was fearfully 
agitated and distressed, for I was now about to be brought 
face to face with the same provost marshal as a spy, upon 
whom a few days previous I had im])osed myself as a rebel 
soldier, and I could but think, "Ah, that's the rub." How- 
ever, I had l)raced myself for the interview, and by the time 
we arrived at the office. I had determined to give my correct 
name and a full account of my first escape only, as I thought 
this would tally with the register at Libby, and have a ten- 
dency to divert suspicion from me as a spy in case they 



Doivn to Castle Thunder. 141 

should accuse me of that offence. But I must admit that the 
bearing of my captor, upon arriving at Richmond was any- 
thing but reassuring, as my "Furioso" marched me through 
the streets, swinging his big revolver^ Hke a conquering hero, 
his air of importance, and the majesty of his swagger seeming 
to indicate that he feU his importance to be great, and he 
seemed to expect the populace to turn out enmasse to greet 
him with, "Hail to the Chief," or "See the Conquering Hero 
Comes." But they did not, and on reaching the provost's 
presence, I observed that "Furioso's" airs suddenly collapsed 
and I gathered from the marshal's manner toward him, that 
he knew him as a chronic blowhard, and a brainless bully. 
The marshal asked him where T had been taken, and if I had 
been carefully searched, and if so, if any incriminating evi- 
dence in the way of papers or any documents had been dis- 
covered, and then very curtly dismissed him. I was then 
ordered up. and in reply to the questions of the provost I 
answered, giving my name, company and regiment, all the 
time keeping my face as much in the shade as possible. I 
stated that I had escaped from the car on the way to Salis- 
bury, and had been recaptured, and to my great comfort and 
delight, neither the marshal nor his clerk recognized me as 
the Frank Hardy who had passed as a rebel soldier and been 
sent to the soldiers' retreat. Making out a commitment, he 
called a guard who conducted me, in company with another 
prisoner, down to Castle Thunder. This disheartened me 
greatly, as 1 was aware that only such as were to be arraigned 
for some offence against the Confederacy were confined here. 
The Castle, to the Yankee, was the veritable "dungeon of de- 
spair" to those confined within its gloomy walls ; all hope of 
exchange or parole died, and he was released only after trial, 
if convicted, to be executed, and to be sent back to Libby if 
exonerated. Dante's inscription over tlie portals of Hades 
would have been appropriate above the gates of Castle 
Thunder, "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here." But a 
mighty burden was rolled oft' my soul when on reaching the 
Castle only the other man, the prisoner of whom I spoke as 
accompaning me from the provost's office, was left at that in- 
ferno. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Imprisoned Again in Libby. 

I was taken across the street to Dick Turner's office and 
then confined on the ground floor in the west end of that 
building. I soon found that my fellow prisoners on that floor 
were all negro soldiers, I being the only white man in the 
room and dressed as I was in a rebel uniform, 1 was at first 
suspected by them of being a rebel emissary placed among 
them as a spy for the purpose of watching them. I succeed- 
ed in convincing them, however, that I was a Yankee in dis- 
guise and then questioned them as to where they had been 
captured and learned what T could in regard to what had 
been transpiring outside since I had been a prisoner. 
These poor fellows seemed to me to be like men who were 
overworked, and I asked them what they had been doing. 
They informed me that they had fallen into the rebels' hands 
at Fort Harrison, and that since their arrival at Libby they 
had been marched out every day and made to work in con- 
structing rebel fortifications, one of the most flagrant breeches 
of the usages of civilized warfare. Yet I blush to say that 
our government made no protest against this great wrong, 
and, so far as 1 was ever al)le to learn, made no effort to pre- 
vent it, and to protect these colored soldiers in their rights 
as prisoners of war. I could not have believed it possible 
that such treatment would have been imposed upon prison- 
ers of war, and the government to whom they belonged, 
make no protestation against it. But I saw morning after 
morning, these soldiers marched out and put to work on the 
rebel works, where they toiled all day, to be marched back in 
the evening, so I know there can be no possible doubt in re- 
gard to the matter. General B. F. Butler, who about this 
time was engaged in digging the war exigency device, the 
Dutch Gap Canal, heard of what the rebels were doing to 



Constructing Rebel Fortifications. 143 

our negro soldiers, and tliat brave and humane man on his 
own responsibilty notified General Lee of the Confederate 
army that if the practice was not immediately stopped he 
would at once put an equal number of rebel officers at work 
on the Dutch Gap Canal. General Lee answered, denying 
positively that any L^nited States soldiers were being worked 
on their fortificatiou-S. General Butler, whose information 
must have been of a very reliable nature, refused to accept 
Lee's denial, and accordingly put the rebel officers at work on 
the canal. This procedure of General Butler put a sudden 
stop to the working of the negro troops on rebel fortifica- 
tions. Meantime I had obtained a copy of the "Richmond 
Dispatch," which contained the correspondence which passed 
between Butler and Lee upon the subject, and as a conse- 
quence I watched closely the result, and I observed that the 
colored soldiers were not marched out mornings, and I c[ues- 
tioned the negroes after they had been withdrawn from their 
labor on the works, therefore I know that this statement is 
absolutely true. And yet the highest officer in the rebel 
army, the gentlemanly and chivalrous Lee, the pink of per- 
fection and the soul of Southern honor, could knowingly and 
deliberately lie, just like a common trooper, in the inter- 
ests of a traitorous rebellion. And what wonder ? Was not 
he a perjured villain the instant he took service under the 
Confederacy, and turned his back upon the Hag of the 
country whose honor he had sworn to uphold and defend ? 
All honor, I say, to the name of Ben Butler, who at least to 
the full extent of his ability and authority, undertook to pro- 
tect the poor prisoners of war whom it seems to me the gov- 
ernment had wantonly abandoned to death by starvation, 
or at most had put forth but feeble and unavailing efforts to 
protect and defend from the cruel incHgnities heaped upon 
them by their brutal captors. Hurrah for "Old Spoony !" 
he always served an effectual remedy in heroic doses for the 
cure of treason, and that fact the rebels duly appreciated, as 
was attested by them in the fact that they kept a standing 
reward of one hundred thousand dollars in gold on his head, 
"dead or alive." 



144 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldoni. 

On the two floors al)ove the negro qnarters, in Libby, 
white men were confined and as the prison keepers ahvays 
took down the comnninicating- stair at night I slept the first 
night among the negroes. The next morning" I chanced to 
get under the hatchway or opening left for the stairs and I 
heard some one shout, "By G — d, if here ain't old Father 
Darby, (father was the nickname by which I was called in 
my company), and on looking up I beheld the smiling face 
of David Richie, and others of the comrades of my company. 
Coming to the opening they let dow-n a blanket which I laid 
hold of and they soon landed me on a higher plane. On this 
floor I found as partners in distress the following named 
members of my company, to-wit : Isaac N. Mitchell, of 
Uniontown, (he is since deceased) ; Leslie Francis, of Perrv- 
opolis ; David Richie, of New^ Haven ; Calvin Darnell, of 
Grindstone, and Bartholomew Warman, of Dunbar, all of 
whom had escaped through the hole I had kicked in the end 
of the car, but like myself they had been retaken and returned 
to Libby several days before I was sent back to keep them 
company. After a hearty greeting, we related to each other 
our experiences and vvhile they were somewhat varied, they all 
had the same sad sequence, in that we each and all failed to 
make good our escape to God's country, as the North was 
called by the boys in captivity. Darnell and Warman had 
gotten flfty miles away before being captured. They were 
sighted by a planter who had a gang of negroes engaged in 
cutting a field of tobacco. He started the darkies in pursuit 
of them, armed with their tobacco knives. Warman Avas 
taken, Ijut when DarneH's pursuer got close enough, Darnell, 
without stopping, turned his head and said, "Slack up ! 
Slack up ! D — m it, what do you want to take me for ?" and 
the negro pretending to be winded, did slacken pace and al- 
lowed Darnell to run away from him. He now made his 
way to the rebel General Malone's line at Petersburg, and 
was concealed by a negro for two days at Mahone's head- 
quarters, but was retaken on attempting to run the lines. 
Mitchell, Richie and Francis had made their way one hiui- 



Recaptured by Bloodhounds. 145 

dred miles from Richmond and then had been run down by 
bloodhounds and recaptured. Darnell had been given a sil- 
ver dollar by a negro, (the only money the poor fellow had). 
With his dollar he had bought the blanket with which they 
hoisted me to the second floor on the morning after my ar- 
rival at Libby. 

On this floor Francis had been placed in command. It 
was his duty to form the men in double line for the monster, 
Dick Turner, to count ofT each morning, and also to report 
the sick, etc. ; for this service he received one exttra ration of 
bread each day. There were eighty-three of us in this room 
at the time, and among them were the men who saw me pass 
myself otT as a rebel soldier on the captain in the car as they 
were being taken to Richmond. These fellows told the 
other prisoners of the episode in the car. and it created a 
strong prejudice against me, as being a rebel emissary, w-ho 
w^as there for the purpose of watching and reporting them to 
the rebel authorities, and they probably would have made it 
very uncomfortable for me had it not been for the assurance 
given them by my comrades that I was all right, and after I 
had explained to them how it all came about, I was imme- 
diately taken into full communion and goodfellowship. 

The nights now were quite cool and we had no fire, and 
there were no sash or glass in the windows, and in order to 
keep warm we slept spoon fashion along the w^alls, and we 
lay so close that when one fellow wanted to whop over the 
W'hole line had to whop. Frequently during the night wdien 
some poor starving skeleton, whose sharp hip bones were 
cutting through to the hard floor, would cry out, "Turn over 
up there," if anyone neglected or refused to obey the in- 
junction to "turn" the air would be full of imprecations 
against the tardy one. 

Amongst the prisoners was a young cavalryman, I think 
he hailed from the state of Wisi:onsin, and he was the fortu- 
nate owner of a blanket which he kindly offered to share with 
me, and as my five comrades were already taxing the ductile 
qualities of their one blanket to its utmost, I gratefully ac- 



146 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldom. 

cepted his offered kindness. After sharing the hospitahty of 
my new found friend for several consecutive nights. I was 
greatly pained and astonished by being accused by him of 
having robbed him during the night. I was very indignant 
at the accusation and felt the hot blood of shame and anger 
rushinsf to mv cheeks and I could hardlv refrain from assault- 
ing him on the spot, but finally I cooled off sufficiently to 
inquire of him as to whether he had been stirring about any 
during the night as I had been awakened by his getting up in 
the night. He answered that he had been to the sink. I 
told him to go there and find his money, or T should be 
obliged to wipe up the floors of Libby with his dirty lying- 
body. While he was gone I pulled off my jacket and cleared 
the deck for action, for really I had no thought of his finding 
his money where there were so many chances of its having 
been picked up. But shortly he returned with a fifty-dollar 
greenback in his hand. It had fallen from his watch-fob 
pocket, and there it lay just as it had fallen, and to accuse a 
comrade of stealing it ! T gave him a lecture, couched in 
language which at this distant day is remembered by me as 
being more emphatic than elegant. I told my messmates 
what had occurred and they were angry and wanted to thrash 
him whether or no. but I finally prevailed on them to allow^ 
the matter to drop, which they did. But T foreswore that 
chap as a bedfellow ever after. But I was most happy in 
that he found his money as that removed all suspicion of the 
theft from my skirts. 

Francis was taken sick and was sent to the prison hos- 
pital, and I was promoted to the position made vacant by his 
disability and I then had the right by dint of my promotion 
to sleej) under the protecting folds of one-fifth of the blanket 
which had sheltered him during his tenure of office as com- 
mander of that room. At the window, near the stairway, 
there was a loose brick in the wall, and one of the men took 
it one night to use as a pillow. On the following morning 
at the designated hour. I had the alignment made, ready for 
counting oft". Dick Turner, on coming up the stairs, saw that 



Tiirjter and Bossieux. 147 

a brick had l)een displaced from the wall, whereupon he in- 
stantly fell into a towering rage, and began raving and curs- 
ing all Yankees in general, and the one who took that brick 
in particular. He swore that not a G — d d — m — d Yankee 
in that room should have anything either to eat or drink un- 
til the son of a b — tch was found who had taken that brick. 
He then stationed guards at either end of the line with orders 
to shoot the first d — m — d Yankee that dared to move out 
of his tracks, and leaving us in this desperate position, he 
went to the floor above. Now while the loss of one daily meal 
to a hearty, well man, would be regarded as a hardship, but 
to men alreadv starving, the loss of one day's food, 
as can readily be imagined, meant added suffering ; and then 
the torture of standing in line, not daring to change position 
under pain of death, I realized that many of the boys in their 
weakened phvsical condition must soon succumb, and the 
older prisoners well knowing the devilish, cruel character of 
Dick Turner, advised that the man who had taken the brick 
should confess, and thus save the innocent much needless suf- 
fering, and this was done. The man had been a prisoner but 
a few davs, and v/as entirely innocent of any harmful inten- 
tion against the rules or discipline of the prison. On the 
return of Turner to the room, I explained the facts to him 
and pleaded the inexperience of the oiTender ; told him the 
brick had been only and solely for use as a pillow and showed 
the brick lying against the wall just where the man had left 
it on getting up from his rest on the floor in the morning. 
Without making any reph- to me lie whipped out a large re- 
volver and pointing it at the man, with a horrible oath, ex- 
claimed, "Put that brick back where you got it from, and if 
you ever touch another brick in this wall I'll blow your brains 
out, G — d d — n you. He then counted us off, and relieved 
us of his damnable presence for that occasion. 

It seems to me quite proper at this juncture to pause 
sufiiciently long to pay to this "duet" of hell, a passing com- 
pliment. Turner, the unmatched \-illain and miscreant, 
showed his cowarcUy, disreputable and brutal character in the 



1 48 Incide7its and Adventures in Rebeldom. 

trivial incidents of the brick and cartridge, as narrated in 
previous chapters, better than I could hope to paint in a word 
picture, in fact the English language fails to furnish words 
of the requisite shades of blackness to properly characterize 
the infamy of the heart of this miseral)le abortion of man- 
hood. If God ever created this travesty of man in his own 
likeness, some malevolent power succeeded in completely 
perverting the work, for he certainly embodied in his vile 
makeup all the characteristics of the Prince of Devils. He 
was strong, stocky of build, of medium height, swarthy 
complexion, and thick, dark curling hair. And I am sure the 
declaration of scripture, that "out of the abundance of the 
heart the mouth speaketh," found verification in him for he 
was possessed of a vocabulary rich in profanity and vile bill- 
ingsgate that would have caused the proverbial fish woman 
to hide her head in shame. I think that the oft repeated dec- 
laration that no bullying, boasting, brutal braggart, ever 
made a good soldier is essentially true, and that fact probably 
explains why Dick Turner held the position of overseer of 
the lousy, dirty, rat-infested, disgusting Libby prison. He 
was just simply too great a coward to enter the rebel army 
and fight like a man against men for a principle which he pro- 
fessed to hold dear ; he preferred to have the enemy against 
whom he was to fight, cooped up and disarmed so that his 
dastardly carcass would be in no danger of harm. He was a 
lying, hypocritical, rulTfianly robber, who would have stolen 
the pennies from the eyes of a dead friend, and then malic- 
iously mutilated the corpse because they were not quarters. 
As often as once a week he would fall into a particularly 
cheerful frame of mind and tipon such occasions he would tell 
us that he had torpedoes so arranged under our prison build- 
ing that in case the Yankee cavalry reached the fortifications 
of Richmond he could, and would, blow every Yankee s — n of 
a b — ch to hell, but in spite of this oft repeated piece of cheer- 
ful information, the prisoners to a man wished and longed 
for the arrival of our cavalry. Pity, generosity or compas- 
sion were whollv unknown to his low animal nature, and in 



Ttirner and Bossieiix . 149 

his intercourse with the Yankees lie was totally devoid of the 
finer sensibilities of hnmanity, therefore an appeal for mercy 
or compassion made no more impression npon his case hard- 
ened soul, than a shotgun loaded with mush would make on 
the rock of Gibraltar. And now on the banks of the beauti- 
ful James River, below Richmond, lives this same Dick 
Turner, unvexed, unwhipped and unpunished, under the pro- 
tecting folds of the flag he insulted and under the govern- 
ment he sought to subvert, enjoying the freedom and liberty 
which he strove so earnestly to deprive others of, while so 
many of the victims of his relentless cruelty, noble-hearted, 
brave and loyal men, lie mouldering in the burial trenches of 
Richmond, "unknown, unhonored and unsung." Let us 
hope, my surviving comrades, that in the great beyond, 
when men are arraigned to answer for the deeds done in the 
body, that Dick Turner will receive the just recompense of re- 
ward for his conduct toward the helpless, defenceless prison- 
ers of war ; but I can but think when in the fullness of time 
Dick Turner knocks at the gate of the portals of the inferno 
for admission, that the imps of hell should look well to their 
laurels, and Satan guard well his crown, for lo ! a greater 
than Satan is here ! 

And now as to Turner's "running mate." I refer to 
Lieutenant Boissieux. Nearly all of the indictments charged 
against the former will lodge against the latter. This detest- 
able, cowardly, low-lived villain, also no doubt held his posi- 
tion at Belle Isle for the same reasons and on account of the 
same qualifications that Turner did at Libby, to-wit : Vil- 
lainy and cowardice. 

He was French by birth, was of a slight build, much 
more slender in person than Turner, but he evidently devel- 
oped about as much depravity to the square inch as did that 
hellion. I have already told of the punishment through the 
agency of the wooden horse which Bossieux inflicted on the 
men who endeavored to escape by swimming to the little isle. 
I described its severity and the awful suffering it brought to 
the victims. This showed the innate brutality of the beast 



150 Incidents a7id Adventures i)i Rebeldom. 

without further comment, but I have somewhat more to offer 
concerning this devil incarnate. I know not whether he still 
lives in the flesh, or whether he has gone to his reward, and if 
he has, may God exercise more mercy toward his soul than 
I could do, for I greatly fear if I had to deal with him. his 
chances for commutation from severe and eternal punishment 
would be slim indeed. I have seen this wretch snatch a mus- 
ket from the hands of a guard and spring like a she panther 
into the midst of a crowd of prisoners, and without cause or 
provocation, with the butt of the gun, knock indiscriminately 
to the right and left the weak, starved creatures. He also 
absolutely made a standing proposition to the rebel prison 
guard that whoever of them killed a Yankee prisoner could 
have a thirty-day furlough.. In consequence of this promise, 
whenever one of the guard wished to go home he would 
shoot into the camp and kill a Yankee. There were several 
who were murdered in this w^ay while I was in that prison, 
and what makes the remembrance of these barbarities more 
keenly bitter to the survivors of those prison hells, is the fact 
that our ungrateful government having adopted its despi- 
cable, pusillanimous policy of non-protection and non-ex- 
change of prisoners, did not so far as I can learn ever offer 
so much as a protest. However, I am aware that some apol- 
ogists undertake to explain it away by urging that it was be- 
cause the rebels refused to extend the right of parole or ex- 
change to the negro troops who had fallen into their hands. 
There were a couple of incidents which occurred on the 
island before my arrival there as a prisoner which I will re- 
late as they were told to me by an eye witness. Bossieux 
had a pet black and tan terrier which one day strayed into 
camp. A prisoner caught it, cut its throat, skinned and pre- 
pared to cook it. Bossieux missing his pet suspected it had 
gotten into camp, hurried in, and observing a man in the act 
of building a fire of a bit of wood, he had succeeded in col- 
lecting for the purpose. The lieutenant approaching discov- 
ered his dog ready for toasting. He was furious and draw- 
ing his revolver, exclaimed, "Now. you G — d d — n son of a 



Non- Exchange of Prisoners. 151 

b — ch,(now this was their pet expression when addressing a 
Yankee), eat that <\o^ and eat him raw ! G — d d — n you, or 
I'll blow^ your brains out I" The man who was so near 
starved that he could hardly wait to cook it anyhow, went at 
it and soon had its bones polished, while Bossieux, who wait- 
ed to see the last morsel disappear, w'ithdrew. The man 
waited until he was out of hearing, shook his fist at him, and 
adopting his manner of speech, said, "Oh, you rebel son of a 
b — ch, you thought you were punishing me didn't you ?" 
Then wiping his mouth on his sleeve said, 'T only wish I had 
another dog to eat." One day a guard whose beat ran from 
the river to the camp on the outside of the fence along the 
lane, shot and killed a prisoner as he was returning with a 
bucket of water from the river. A Buck Tail, who had seen 
the killing, armed himself with a shin bone and slipping down 
along the fence reached over and striking him a fearful blow 
on the head, killed him, whereupon Bossieux shut of¥ the ra- 
tions of the camp and swore he would starve every d — m — d 
Yankee to death unless the man who killed the guard was 
found ; but the men toward evening became desperate and 
threatening, and Bossieuxs', cowardly heart failed him and 
fearing a revolt he rushed the grub into camp. Leaving these 
two worthies to the infamy of the damned and consigning 
them to the abode of tlie imps infernal, I will resume the 
thread of the narrative where it was dropped to indulge in 
this digression. 

Being, as I said in a previous chapter, in the western 
end of the prison Libby, we commanded a good view of the 
wharf, where we used to stand behind the bars and watch the 
rebels land from the exchange boat. Fat, hearty, saucy 
and happy, they would run dow^n the gangplank onto the 
wharf shouting and hurrahing for Jeff Davis and the 
Southern Confederacy, kicking up their heels like a lot of 
colts on being turned into a field of fresh clover. After a 
little a miserable, melancholy procession of Yankees from' 
the hospitals, to be exchanged for these hearty, well-fed 
rebels, would appear slowly and painfully staggering toward 



152 Incidents a7id Advent2ires in Rebeldom. 

tlie boat, a great numlier of whom would be unable to walk 
at all, having to be carried aboard the boat on stretchers. 
Now just here I am reminded was another reason assigned 
by our government for stopping the exchange of prisoners 
(and the rebs taunted us with the fact upon every occasionj. 
It was this : The rebels, on being released from our north- 
ern prisons, were ready to enter immediately mto their 
armies for service ; while the Yankee soldiers, if they were 
fortunate to survive at all, were so reduced by starvation 
that it would be months before they were ready for field ser- 
vice. Very manifestly the proper way to have corrected this 
evil would have been to have furnished the rebel prisoners 
with the same kind and quality of food, shelter and clothing 
that was furnished us by the rebels. Any other course than 
the one suggested placed the Union prisoner of war at a 
disadvantage, and was unjust to him ; but I imagine I hear 
you saying that would have been inhuman. War is inhu- 
man, cruel and unjust at best. Right is eternally right, and 
wrong is just as eternally wrong, and no war ever waged 
ever yet settled the right or the wrong of the question at 
issue. Therefore the golden rule of warfare is. "What so- 
ver the enemy doeth unto you, do ye also unto the 
enemy." If one of the belligerents wages a war of humanity, 
and the other a war of brutal savagery, the humane party 
will be the sufferer every time, as they are unable to restrain 
the acts of savagery on the part of the enemy, and also fail 
to inflict a corresponding loss upon him by the practice of 
the same kind of tactics. The treatment of Union prisoners 
of war is a forceful illustration of this fact, as seventy-one 
thousand men died as a result of the cruel savagery prac- 
ticed upon them by the rebels, in whose hands they were as 
prisoners of war ; while no corresponding loss was inflicted 
upon them by the Federal government. I hold it to be true 
that it would have been quite as humane to have starved to 
death rebels who were in armed rebellion, as to starve to 
death Union men who were heroically striving to maintain 
the government and preserve the national life. Any coun- 



Appointed Wardmaster 153 

trv engaged in a war, and refusing or neglecting to protect 
its soldiery by a just and equitable system of reprisal and re- 
taliation, is unworthy the support of loyal and courageous 
subjects. But I find T have been indulging in another digres- 
sion, but when I arrive at a point where the spirit moves me 
to make a comment, I hope the reader will indulge me. while 
I will leave you to accept or reject my conclusions as the 
proof may sustain or fail to sustain the positions it may lead 
the reader to take. 

The views obtained from the windows of Libby were 
necessarily distant ones, as we were forbidden on penalty of 
being instantly shot down, from approaching nearer than 
several feet to the sills of the windows, and the guards would 
shoot any going near enough to the bars to be seen by them 
from the street below. One of our rooms was ornamented 
with a stove of the common variety, but the rebels would al- 
low us no fire. There were several boxes of sawdust in the 
room which were used as spittoons, and were as a rule in a 
very filthy condition, yet I have seen starving men pick bones 
out of this mass of filth and corruption and gnaw at them 
most ravenously. 

One day about the ist of November. 1864, Dick Turner 
accompanied by several other rebels came into the prison 
room and selected me for the position of hospital wardmaster 
to serve in a hospital which they were about to establish for 
the care, (or perhaps, more properly speaking for the slow 
death), of a number of sick and wounded Yankees wdio had 
been taken in one of our hospitals at or near Fort Harrison. 
They accorded to me as wardmaster the privilege of select- 
ing four men to act as nurses, and one to serve as hospital 
steward, from among my fellow prisoners. I selected 
Mitchell, Darnell, Richie and Warman for nurses, and a 
man by the name of Fogle for steward. Fogle was one of 
the men taken by Mosby, and was on the train at the time I 
passed myself ofT on the captain as a rebel soldier. Fogle 
assured me that he was well posted upon the subject of med- 
icines, having, as he said, served as prescription clerk in a 



154 Incidents and Adventures, in Rebeldoju. 

drug store ; however, when he undertook to fill prescriptions 
I found him to be an unmitigated liar, as he knew absolutely 
nothing about medicines, not so much as a mule might be ex- 
pected to know of mathematics. I however did not blame him 
particularly, as he took this plan to get out of the living hell 
Libby. On the contrary I assisted him all I could, and as 
our materia medica was not elaborate it required no pro- 
ficient Latin to handle it successfully, and we got along fair- 
ly well after all. If Fogle is still in the land of the living I 
should be pleased to meet him and take a pill with him for 
the sake of "Auld Lang Syne." We were inducted into our 
new-found field of usefulness in a large three-story brick to- 
bacco house which fronted on Broad street ; the building 
and grounds were inclosed with a high board fence. There 
was a two-story frame addition to the brick building which 
also fronted on Broad street, the upper story of which was 
used as a sleeping room in conmion by the attendants of the 
three wards composing the hospital. The lower floor of this 
building was partially filled with stems and refuse tobacco, 
covering the floor to the depth of several feet, and to this 
room we had free access. Now directly across from the 
main or brick portion of the building was a small brick struc- 
ture which was used as a gangrene ward. 

Myself and comrades were assigned to duty on the up- 
per floor which was furnished with cots for about fifty 
patients. We drew soup, which was very thin, its chief in- 
gredients being rice and potatoes, skins and all, but as our 
patients did not arrive until long after the dinner hour, Mr. 
Woodward, the steward in charge, allowed us to eat as much 
of the soup as we desired, and I am here to say that my five 
assistants and myself got away with it slick and clean, thus 
taking a fairly good fill up on the ration which would have 
had to answer for the fifty men had they arrived in time for 
dinner. Darnell, although a small man, managed to eat an 
ordinary wooden bucket full of the soup, which so distended 
his proportions that it was impossible for him to flex his body, 



Annex to General Hospital. 155 

and in consequence he was obliged to sit upright as stitf as 
a ramrod. 

This hospital was really but an annex to General Hos- 
pital No. 21 from which our food and medicine were obtained 
and to which our dead were carried. This general hospital, 
if my memory serves me correctly, was located at the corner 
of Gary and a cross street, one square distant from ours, and 
when any of us Yankees had occasion for any purpose to go 
there, we were attended by rebel guards. In cases of emer- 
gency, where a doctor or remedies were needed promptly, 
this awaiting the motion of the guard caused a delay which 
in numerous instances proved fatal to the patient, whereas 
prompt action would have saved the life of the sufferer. 

Toward evening of our initial day at the hospital annex 
our expected patients arrived and were promptly installed 
upon their respective cots, many, alas, of whom were never 
to leave them in life. I had but one case of amputation in 
my department, and that was performed upon a cavalryman 
by the name of O'Brine. He was a member of a New York 
regiment the number of which has escaped me. The leg' 
was amputated below the knee. I had numerous cases of 
gunshot wounds, some of which were very severe ones. The 
other patients were sufferers mainly from desperate attacks 
of pneumonia, chronic diarrhoea, scurvey, diphtheria, 
pleurisy, typhoid and remittent fevers. Our ward was fumi- 
gated daily by a negro attendant who walked silently up one 
aisle and down another bearing in his hands a shovel of 
coals upon which was burning coal tar or pitch. This opera- 
tion was performed in the mornings before the arrival of the 
doctor on his daily rounds. Our materia medica embraced 
the following named, well recognized drugs and remedies, 
to-wit : Aqua pura, sheep's tallow for dressing amputa- 
tions, Spanish fly and mustard for blisters or counter irri- 
tants, flaxseed for poultices, nitrate of silver as a caustic, 
opium and corn whisky as stimulants, tincture and iodide of 



156 Incide7its and Adventures in Rebeldoni. 

iron, and perhaps a few other drugs of like character. We 
had no quinine or chincona, nothing whatever of that kind. 
I shall probably have occasion in the course of this nar- 
rative to refer personally to some of my patients ; mean- 
time I will introduce to my readers the supervisors of this 
hospital. I mean those who were conducting' its affairs un- 
der the rebel authorities. 




CHAPTER XIII. 
Woodward. 

First in order I beg- leave to introduce to you Mr. Wood- 
ward. He was a citizen of Richmond. V^a., a merchant by 
avocation, whom I strongly suspect of occupying his present 
position of hospital superintendent only to avoid service in 
the rebel army. Mr. Woodward was a genial, pleasant-faced, 
mild-mannered man, a little above medium height : and 
good humor seemed to be his ruling characteristic. He was 
so striking an exception to the average rebel official that I 
cannot pass him by without a kindly word. In all the time 
of my association with him T never knew him to be guilty of 
applying an abusive or profane epithet to a Yankee, nor did 
I ever see him display an angry mood. His good humor 
bubbled up from the midst of his vile environments and 
sparkled forth like an oasis, from a Sahara of disgusting ob- 
scenity, vituperation and profane abuse. His business re- 
quiring most of his time, his visits to the institution resem- 
bled the proverbial angel visits, they were "few and far be- 
tween," usually not oftener than once or twice per week. 
He however had an assistant in the person of one, Charles 
Walters, who occupied a room on the second floor of the 
annex, where a space had been partitioned of¥ for the pur- 
pose. Mr. Woodward was in general good favor with the 
prisoners, as a matter of fact he was well liked by them, and 
I have no doubt but at heart he was really a Union man, in 
fact he more than intimated as much to me upon several oc- 
casions. He told me that it was the universal belief in Rich- 
mond, at that time, that if General George B. McClelland 
were to be elected president at the North, that the Confed- 
eracy would instantly become an assured success, and this 
view of the situation was also held by his assistant, Charles 
Walters, who by the way, was a rampant rebel in his views 



158 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldom, 

and sympathies, and I had heard rebel officers at Libbv re- 
peatedly make the same assertion ; so also I heard the same 
declaration from officers at the prison at Belle Isle. The 
opinions of the rank and file of the rebel army upon this sub- 
ject have already been stated in a preceding chapter of this 
work. It would therefore be quite in order to seek a motive 
for this generally prevailing rebel belief both of the rebel 
civilian and soldier as to the success of the cause of the Con- 
federacy depending upon the election of McClelland to the 
presidency of the Northern states. 

In searching for the causes of the rebel faith in McClel- 
land's desire and ability to save them, it will be necessary to 
review the Peninsular and Antietam campaigns, or at least 
such portions of them as may testify to his incompetent and 
treasonable acts. To begin with, it could not be reasonably 
supposed, that in the absence of any evidence or knowl- 
edge of his being favorable to the success of their cause, that 
the rebels would have developed such a liking for McClel- 
land that would cause them to become so solicitous for his 
election to the presidency, as to cause them to cheer repeat- 
edly from their breastworks for him, as many a comrade still 
living can testify to having heard them do. It was the col- 
lecting of immense numbers of small arms and large quan- 
tities of munitions which he failed to have issued to his own 
troops, notwithstanding that thousands of his soldiers were 
armed with the old Harper's Ferry muskets, an arm which 
was almost entirely worthless ; it was, I say, the fact of his 
leaving thousands upon thousands of stands of those new 
Springfield rifles, together with numberless munitions which 
he left to fall into their hands as narrated in a previous chap- 
ter, which had rendered McClelland to the rebel heart so 
dear. Of the millions of dollars worth of military stores col- 
lected at White House Landing and Savage Station, a small 
fraction only was destroyed, just enough to cover 
his treasonable design, the balance of which was purposely 
left for the rebel army, and this explains why the Johnnies 



Review of McCIellandism. 159 

referred to him as being the best quartermaster they ever 
had. 

The Fifth Army Corps occupied the north side of the 
Chickahominy, and the balance of the army was on the south 
or Richmond side of the river, with three bridges connecting 
them ; one at Deep Bottom, the railroad bridge at Dispatch 
Station, and one still lower down the stream. General Lee, 
leaving Magruder in the defenses of Richmond with twenty- 
five thousand troops, crossed the Chickahominy at Hanover 
Junction, twenty-three miles from Richmond, and being re- 
enforced by Jackson, attacked the right of the Fifth Corps 
at Mechanicsville. The Union line at this point was held by 
the division of the Pennsylvania Reserves under General Mc- 
Call and the Reserves fought the battle on that part of the 
line without assistance from the rest of the corps. The 
rebels were badly defeated and suffered a severe loss in killed 
and wounded, while our loss was trifling. The next day oc- 
curred the battle of Gaines' VaW, where the loss was about 
evenly divided. At Mechanicsville the Confederate loss was 
six thousand, so in the two battles the results, in so far as loss 
of men was concerned, was largely in favor of the Union 
army. The Fifth Corps was now withdrawn to the Rich- 
mond side of the river and the bridges were destroyed. Now 
to an ordinary high private serving in the ranks it appears 
that now^ would have been the moment to hurl the 
victorious Army of the Potomac upon Magruder in Rich- 
mond. Can there be a reasonable doubt of the ability of the 
noble Army of the Potomac taking both Richmond and Ma- 
gruder's army if this course had been pursued, and especially 
as Jackson had left the valley and gone to Lee's assistance ? 
Fremont's army w-as free to go to the defenses of Washing- 
ton and thus secure the safety of the Capital City. Lee 
would have been obliged to rebuild the bridges over the 
Chickahominy or to have taken a circuitous route via Han- 
over Junction, and in either case would have been delayed 
from thirty-six to forty-eight hours in reaching Richmond, 



i6o Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldojn. 

and l)efore the lapse of that time the Army of the Potomac 
could ha\'e engulfed Richmond and its little army of defend- 
ers. 

McClelland was not lacking- in confidence in the bravery 
of his men or in the devotion of his army, but on the con- 
trary feared the intensity of their courage and patriotism 
lest it should inflict irreparable injury upon the enemy with 
whom he was in undoubted sympathy. This solves the mys- 
tery why he never fought a battle unless compelled so to do. 
and then fought them only in detail. His unexplained and 
inexcusable delays are easily accounted for when we consid- 
er that time, with the rebels, was the great desideratum ; it 
was time they needed, time to fortify, time to recruit and re- 
plenish, in fact, time was their only hope of salvation. Rich- 
mond at that moment was in a state of complete panic, and 
"Little Mac." the ever unready, lavishly granted them time 
galore. General Heintzelman said after the battle of Fair 
Oaks, "I have no doubt but that we might have gone right 
into Richmond," and Heintzelman's opinion was shared by 
almost every officer in that army whose knowledge of the sit- 
uation entitled tliem to consideration. And if this could 
have been done after the Battle of Fair Oaks, against the 
whole rebel army, how much more easily could it have been 
accomplished after the battle of Gaines' Mill, when only Ma- 
gruder and his tw^enty-five thousand men were wathin the 
defenses. Now the losses of the two armies in killed and 
w^ounded in the series of battles which culminated in the Rat- 
tle of Malvern Hill, were about equal, if we except Mechan- 
icsville and Malvern, where the rebel losses far exceeded 
those of the Union army. And it is a matter of history that 
at Malvern Hill General McClelland abandoned his army and 
took refuge on a gunboat six miles distant from the field, 
and was not on the ground at any time during the progress 
of the fight and in fact during all my term of service in the 
Army of the Potomac I never saw^ him under fire in any bat- 
tle during all these campaigns. Now, my comrades and 



Battle of Malvern. i6i 

countrymen, I appeal to you, was tliis the part of a lirave, 
loyal-hearted general, one who was true to his country 
and her cause ? Was it not rather the act of a cowardly, in- 
competent and traitorous commander, who did not desire the 
success of the cause he afTected to espouse, and cared not 
for the disgrace and defeat of his devoted army ? In fact 
does it not conclusively argue that he wished, and anticipated 
the defeat of his army, and consequently made sure of his 
own safety ? 

At the opening of the Battle of Malvern the corps com- 
manders formed in line in an open field without defenses or 
protection of any kind. The combined forces of Lee and 
Jackson had been augmented l^y Magruder and his twenty- 
five thousand troops from the defenses of Richmond, and 
their lines were well protected by dense woods. The army 
of the Potomac up to this time had lost about fifteen thous- 
and men. Allowing the rebel loss to have been equal to our 
own, by the addition of Magruder's army they outnumbered 
us by at least ten thousand men at this, the last of the seven 
days battle, in excess of W'hat they did at the opening of the 
fight at Mechanicsville. And yet this superb Army of the Po- 
tomac, notwithstanding the hardships and losses of six suc- 
cessive hard-fought battles, met the increased forces of the 
rebels in the open field and crushingly defeated them at every 
point, and that too while their cowardly commander was in- 
gloriously skulking on board a gunboat six miles away. Oh, 
for a Phil Sheridan at this supreme moment ! There would 
have been a total rout of the rebel army, and the spoils of 
victory would ha\'e been gathered in, and the ut- 
ter destruction of the army of the insurgents accomplished. 
Now T claim that if it were possible under the circumstances 
as above stated, for the Army of the Potomac to thoroughly 
beat the rebel army in the open field as they did do, then there 
never was a time from the opening of the Peninsular cam- 
paign when they could not have done it if it had been com- 
petently and ably commanded. But McClelland, upon hear- 



i62 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldo7n. 

ing of this complete and gloriously decisive victory, instead 
of marching over the shattered rebel army in triumph into 
Richmond, ordered an inglorious retreat, thus allowing 
the chaplet of victory, so heroically earned by his gallant 
army, to be borne off by their defeated foemen. 

I cannot close this article on Malvern without quoting 
the appropriate and burning words of the lamented General 
Phil Kearny upon receipt of McClelland's traitorous order 
for the retreat : "T, Philip Kearny, an old soldier, do most 
solemnly enter my protest against this order for a retreat. 
We ought instead of retreating to follow up the enemy and 
take Richmond, and in full view of all the responsibilities of 
such a declaration I say to you all. such an order can only be 
prompted by cowardice or treason !" Surely those are 
strong words for a general to use against his commanding 
of^cer. But the best evidence of their being truthful is the 
fact that the cowardly and treacherous McClelland never 
called Kearny to an account for their utterance. 

I will now take up the flag of truce incident at Antietam, 
and I am safe in saying that history fails of a parallel in au- 
dacious criminality and treachery, followed not only by the 
escape of the traitor from all punishment for his crime, but 
instead thereof being honored by a great number of promi- 
nent citizens of the commonwealth which he had essayed to 
ruin ; and what seems still more singular is the fact that he 
retained the sympathy and devotion of a large number of 
the soldiers of the army he had so basely betrayed, even after 
he had been relieved of his command. 

A flag of truce suspending hostilities for the space of 
twenty-four hours was granted Lee by McClelland while a 
decisive battle was rapidly being decided in favor of the 
Union cause. Such a procedure in the whole course of the 
war up to that time had never been thought of, neither was 
such an action taken by a commander of either army during 
the remainder of the war, and T feel safe in saying that history 
fails to furnish a parallel to this audacious criminality, at 



Enables Lee to Escape. 163 

least where the traitor escaped punishment by tlie conntrv 
betrayed. Why then was this truce granted ? There can 
be but one answ^er to this question, viz.: It was the only pos- 
sible way of saving the rebel army from utter annihilation. 
Lee's army had been defeated at every point along the whole 
line, and was now' penned in a bend of the Potomac River, 
with no bridge over which to escape, and his destruction was 
assured if the battle continued, hence McClelland ordered a 
cessation of hostilities for twenty-four hours to enable Lee 
to make good his escape with his army to the Virginia shore, 
and well did he improve the time granted him. Every dead 
soldier on the battle field of Antietam was a wilful sacrificial 
offering to the Moloch of rebellion, and the villainous traitor 
who was responsible for this useless sacrifice of human life 
went scot free of all punishment ; even in his book, entitled 
"McClelland's Own Story," he does not mention, or in any 
way refer to this traitorous event which caused such a wan- 
ton and appalling waste of precious lives, neither does he re- 
fer to or offer any excuse for his cowardly desertion of the 
army at the Battle of Malvern Hill. Now some of my com- 
rades may take exceptions to this arraignment of McClel- 
land, but the evidence, to my mind, is conclusive and must be 
disproved before I can change my opinion, and this T feel can- 
not be done by any dissenting comrade. Hence T again de- 
nounce General Geo. B. AJcClelland as the champion traitor 
of the Nineteenth Century, and it is high time that he be 
shorn of the glamour w^hich has surrounded him, as the out- 
growth of a false sentiment, and blind devotion on the part 
of his misguided followers, and he should be relegated to that 
niche in truthful history to which his traitorous deeds and 
perfidious acts justly consign him, in order that future gen- 
erations may execrate him as the Benedict Arnold of the 
Great Rebellion. 

Having, as I think, shown sufficient cause for the friend- 
liness and solicitude manifested by the rebels for McClelland, 
I will resume the narrative bv introducing to the reader a hy- 



164 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldom, 

brid individual who was second in command at the hospital, 
of which I have previously spoken, in which I was appointed 
to serve as wardmaster. This person bore the name of 
Charles Walters. He was a berouged, bepainted, effeminate 
weakly, dried up individual with an angular face almost sharp 
enough to shoot fish with ; this apology of a man was most 
heartily detested by the Yankees and was always spoken of 
by them as belonging to the female sex. She was supposed 
to be, and no doubt was, a played-out member of the Rich- 
mond demi monde, dressed in mail attire. She always made 
her appearance in the morning freshly rouged and painted 
and with a dudish and dandified air illy befitting her thread- 
bare and over-worn garments. Her sharp cheek bones pro- 
truded from her withered and painted face like bumps on a 
peeled log. She would select a young and good looking 
Yankee for a patient and pet, much as an old maid would be 
expected to select a kitten or poodle, and I have often seen 
her and her favorite having a jolly time in her room where 
she would serve oysters and other luxuries. The fortunate 
Yankee who secured Charlie's favor was quite sure to get a 
parole at an early date, whereupon she would select another 
upon which to lavish her maudlin affection. When Wood- 
ward, the superintendent paid his visits, "Charlie" always had 
a long string of complaints and charges to pour into his ears 
against the horrible Yankees, but Woodward, upon such oc- 
casions, would chuck her affectionately under the chin and 
laugh and joke and make light of her complainings, and this 
would sometimes put her in a very angry mood. I never 
knew him to take action on her complaints, evidently consid- 
ering them but the vaporings of an ill-humored and anti- 
quated old maid. She railed out upon Richie and Warman 
one day until those gentlemen became very angr>^ and threat- 
ened to boost her out of a window ; for this she promptly 
reported them to the higher rebel authorities, and as a con- 
sequence they were promptly sent over to Libliy and con- 
fined in what was known as the retaliation room, where thev 



Enables Lee to Escape. 



165 



were kept for some time as a punishment for their offense 
against "her highness." I supposed they had been paroled, 
and I did not learn of their incarceration in the penal room 
until we had returned from the war. 




CHAPTER XIV. 

Disciples of Esculapius. 

Our hospitals afforded to the fledglings of Esculapius 
and the nonentities styling themselves physicians, an elegant 
opportunity, which by the way they were not slow to avail 
themselves of, to practice their art, or rather to demonstrate 
their ignorance of the principles of the science which they 
affected to be masters of. And as the prisoners had no 
friends to protest against their being subjects for the experi- 
ments of harlequins and their unskilled and senseless treat- 
ment, the consequence was that changes in surgeons (falsely 
called) were frequent. 

Among the patients in my department was a vigorous, 
hearty German who had been hit high up on the forehead by 
a bullet, causing a depression of the skull at that point, re- 
sulting in compression of the brain and causing the most ex- 
cruciating pain. Obviously, relieving the pressure was the 
thing needed, which could have been readily accomplished 
by trepanning, and such a course would doubtless have saved 
the life of the sufferer. But on the contrary, one morning a 
blear-eyed, stupid-looking individual, announcing himself as 
a doctor, came in, and after walking through the aisles of the 
ward, prescribed either a flaxseed poultice or a mustard plas- 
ter for every patient in the place, excepting only a man who 
had suffered an amputation of a leg. A poultice was accord- 
ingly applied to the poor German's head. The result of this 
process was of course to still further tax the already over- 
charged brain with blood, in response to the irritant, and as 
a consequence the patient died on the following morning. I 
have mentioned this case in order to show the reader to what 
danger to life and limb the soldier is su])ject, even though he 
succeed in escaping death on the battlefield. And it is a 



Disciples of Esculapins. 167 

fact beyond controversy that there \vere exhibits of fortitude 
and bravery in our hospitals which equaled, if they did not 
excel, any displayed on the field of battle. 

I must be excused for mentioning a case of extraordin- 
ary nerve as displayed by a man of my department upon the 
occasion of the poultice doctor's visit above referred to. The 
name of this hero was Albert ^Jorse. He was a native of the 
State of Massachusetts and a sailor on the gunboat Under- 
writer. He had received a gunshot wound in the shin ; he 
was captured by the rebels at Plymouth and confined for 
sometime at Charleston, S. C. His wound had proven very 
obstinate and the government having abrogated all exchange 
of prisoners, Morse was sent with many others to Richmond, 
and when the doctor proposed poulticing his wound, he was 
given to understand in language more expressive than ele- 
gant, that he would submit to no such nonsense. Reduced 
in flesh to a mere skeleton and consequently very weak, the 
wound on the leg was a desperate one. The bone for the 
space of five inches in length, was bare of flesh, and to add 
to his discomfort, he had three frightful bed sores, one on 
each hip and one on the back, either of which was at least 
six inches in diameter. Yet notwithstanding his sufferings, 
this man exhibited the most determined resolution and 
courage ; indeed it would seem impossible, under the sur- 
roundings, and in the midst of such suft'erings, for any human 
being to have maintained such pluck and nerve ; and by the 
way, he was in no way chary of his language when making 
known to the doctors his disapprobation of their methods. 
He would roundly curse and damn them daily for refusing 
to amputate his leg. Gangrene finally set in and he was 
transferred to the gangrene ward and there submitted to the 
painful operation of having the affected flesh burned out with 
nitrate of silver. On being returned to my ward he said to 
the rebel doctor, "G — d d — n you, why don't you cut that 
leg off ? You think I'll die ! But I'll show you that I'll 
never die in vour damned old Southern Conthieveracv. I'm 



1 68 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldom. 

going- to live to get home." The doctors still refused to take 
the limb off, and in spite of all our efforts to prevent it gan- 
grene again set in. 

Then the doctors concluded to amputate, and did so. 
Morse stood the operation like the hero he was, and we gave 
him the best care possible under the circumstances. Never- 
theless, thirty days later the flesh had receded three inches 
from the end of the bone, leaving it protruding from the 
stump. This condition was due largely of course to the 
careless and bungling manner in which the operation had 
been performed. Sloughing of the parts ensued, a piece of 
flesh as large as the palm of my hand dropping out from 
alongside the bone, and at the same time an artery gave way. 
Chancing to be near him at the time, I at once seized the 
artery and held it until the doctor, who was summoned, ar- 
rived. But for the timely discovery poor Morse's life would 
surely have gone out in a few seconds. Upon the arrival of 
the doctor he ordered that the wound be syringed with tinc- 
ture of iron and a tourniquet applied, but it was found that 
the patient was too far reduced in strength to endure the 
tourniquet, so for three days and nights we, by alternate re- 
liefs, held the artery. By this time the process of coagula- 
tion had put him beyond danger from hemorrhages, and in 
a short time he had so far recovered as to be paroled, and the 
last I ever saw of the courageous-hearted Morse he was be- 
ing borne upon a stretcher to the wharf to take passage on a 
vessel bound for God's country, and now after the lapse of 
nearly thirty-five years, it would be a source of the greatest 
gratification to me to know that this lion-hearted man lived 
to reach his home in safety ; but that he did verify his pre- 
diction that he would not die in the Southern "Conthiever- 
acy." I am well assured that his indomitable pluck and will 
would sustain him until he was safely within our lines again. 

I observed in my intercourse with my prison associates 
that the brave-hearted, determined fellows were the ones who 
stood the ravages of starvation and exposure nuich more sue- 



Fatal Doctors. 169 

cessfullv than those of a softer, gentler disposition. When 
one was seen to be despondent and homesick, we at once con- 
cluded that the chances were against him, and as a matter of 
fact, such were the first to succumb to the effects of the ter- 
rible regime ; and knowing this, we made all sorts of efforts 
to cheer each other up by song singing and story telling, and 
when these diversions failed to arouse a dispondent com- 
rade w^e generally looked upon his case as hopeless, and as 
a rule we were quite correct in our judgment, for after los- 
ing heart the individual usually lived but a brief time. So 
to prevent as much as possible any of the boys falling into 
homesickness, we used to keep up the singing in our frame 
building, which we occupied as a sleeping room, until late at 
night. One of our best and happiest singers as T rememljer 
them, w-as a comrade by the name of Paul Graham, who was 
a resident of Ligonier Valley, and I think he was a member 
of the Fourth Pennsylvania Cavalry. I never had the pleas- 
ure of seeing Graham after the war, but sometime since 1 
learned through the postmaster of Ligonier that he died 
some years ago. 

There were many instances of suft'ering in that hos- 
pital which might have been relieved, if not entirely obviated, 
if the doctors in charge had been humane and skillful as they 
ought to have been. To illustrate, one of my patients, a 
large, robust man, whose name escapes me, was attacked with 
diphtheria, and was desperately sick, but having great vigor 
of constitution, we saw no reason w'hy he might not pull 
through it all right if the proper treatment was given, but 
one evening shortly after the doctor had made his usual 
rounds and left the building, the patient was taken worse, 
whereupon I immediately sent for the doctor, but as was 
usual a vast amount of circumlocution had to be enacted be- 
fore a response to the call could be made, so before the doc- 
tor arrived the man was dead. He died in great agony ; in fact 
of all the deaths which I was called upon while there to wit- 
ness, his, I think, was the most horrific. Then the doctor had 



170 htcidents and Advenhires in Rebeldoin. 

the assurance to tell me that he could have saved the man's 
life by an operation. Well knowing the patient's condition, 
and seeing that an operation would save his life, why did he 
not perform it at the proper time ? There can be but one 
reason assigned for his failure to do so, and that is this, it 
meant death to one more Yankee and as a sequence one 
less loyal-hearted foeman to oppose the hell-hounds of red- 
handed rebellion. There were quite a number of deaths oc- 
curring in my ward, the names of the persons escaping me, 
but I remember quite well that among those who died there 
were Charles Robinson, ot Wisconsin, and Hiram Hornbeck, 
of New York. 

I had one case of scurvy which terminated fatally, the 
patient being one mass of putrefying sores from the crown of 
his head to the soles of his feet. This foul disease results 
from want of proper vegetable food. 

About this time the rebels began to fill the places made 
vacant by death in my ward, by bringing in from Libby 
enough to fill the cots with her lousy, ragged inmates, who 
from the treatment they had received, were more dead than 
alive. Our first care was to free them from the myriads of 
vermin that infested their meager clothing and preyed upon 
their poor, emaciated bodies. As soon as we received a re- 
cruit from Libby he was stripped naked, washed antl put to 
bed, and his clothes were hung out of a window in order 
that the lice might suffer death from freezing. After a week 
or two of exposure to the frost, the lice would disappear, and 
then the clothing would be tied into a bundle and placed 
under the head of the patient's couch in case the owner 
of the clothes still tarried in the flesh when the louse kill- 
ing process was ended; if not,, which was often the case, some 
other poor suffering soul got them. It is, I am well aware, 
a difficult thing for persons who have had no opportunities 
of observing with what rapidity "body vermin" will multi- 
ply, to conceive of the condition a person will find himself 
in in a short space of time after being infected with those 



Conflict zvith ''''Graybacks.'''' 171 

little brutes. Verily ! they "grow and flourish like a green 
bav tree," especially if one is hampered in his facilities for 
fighting them, as all prisoners in Southern prisons were. 

I am inclined to pass over this in silence on account of 
its repulsiveness, but for the horribly miserable condition of 
the poor Union prisoners as they came to us at the hospital 
from Libby. As one object of this publication is to inform 
the people as to the sufferings of our soldiers while confined 
in the prison pens of the South, I shall offer no further apol- 
ogy for the following narration, every word of which I as- 
sure the reader is true. I frequently received men into the 
ward whose bodies were literally eaten full of holes by these 
parasites, as though it was not enough that their poor bodies, 
weakened by starvation, had scarcely vitality sufficient to 
sustain the spark of life within them, but they also were ob- 
lis^ed to furnish sustenance to the multitudinous insect life 
which swarmed and preyed unhindered upon their emaciated 
frames. Our conflicts with the "graybacks," or body lice, 
thanks to the freezing process, were not so long drawn or 
desperate, but when we came to deal with the head lice we 
were never quite sure when the conflict would end. Our 
weapons, both of offense and defense, against this enemy 
were crude and consisted only of a comb with teeth some- 
thing after the order of those of a garden rake, which a Yan- 
kee prisoner had made from a piece of bone with a pocket 
knife. Then we had a bit of an old gum-blanket which we 
utilized as a receptacle for the fallen foe, and in addition, an 
old iron kettle, and with this armament we waged a war of 
extermination against these pestiferous parasites. The "mo- 
dus operandi'' resorted to in the case of a man having a 
heavy head of hair and an unusually thick beard will suffice 
to give the reader an idea of the process in a general way. 

As I say, when this man was brought in from Libby, 
Richie and I took charge of the patient and after divesting 
him of his garments, put him to bed. We then, after allow- 
ing him to rest a little, propped him up on his couch and 
spreading the rubber blanket over his lap, commenced 



172 Incidents atid Adventiwes in Rebeldom. 

the raking- process, and at every passage of the rude coml) 
through the hair, the Hce would rattle down upon the blanket 
like falling rain. The poor man himself was greatly aston- 
ished at the magnitude of the catch, and as he looked upon 
the constantly increasing pile of live animals, his exclama- 
tions of surprise w^ere both pathetic and amusing- ; and no 
marvel, for we actually secured in this particular case about 
one pint of lice from his head an.d beard. Our next niove 
w^as to fill our kettle with tobacco stems from which we made 
a strong decoction with which we bathed his head, and with 
cloths soaked in the same, bound up his head and luxuriant 
beard. In following this process for a time w-e succeeded 
in ridding our patient of his tormentors, but the operation 
was prolonged from the fact that every hair in the man's 
head was covered for at least one inch from the scalp with 
nits, and these continued to hatch out, so we were obliged to 
repeat the bathing with the infusion of tobacco for several 
days. 

The first day of January, 1865, was a day long to be re- 
meml)ered on account of its being so intensely cold at 
Richmond. The James River froze over its entire width 
that night, a thing which rarely occurred ; '"Indeed,"' said 
Superintendent Woodward, "it had not happened for twenty 
years before." A large number of the prisoners in Libby 
were cruelly frozen during that night, and no marvel ; the 
wonder being that they did not all perish of the cold, as 
they were allowed no fire at all, and the windows were entirely 
open. On the day following I received a contingent of the 
victims of the frost from Libby and a sorry lot thev were, I 
assure you. Some of the number had had their feet so bad- 
ly frozen that their toes actually dropped from their feet. 
This hellish act on the part of the rebels, for a won- 
der, called out uncomplimentary comments from their own 
people which resulted in their boarding up the windows, thus 
leaving the prisoners in perpetual darkness, subjected to a 
combination of the i)lagues of intense cold, darkness and 
lice, and I iirndv believe that if the hellish rebel authoriries 



Unspeakable Cruelty. 173 

could have devised any other plagues they would have been 
added to those above enumerated. The tomahawk and 
scalping knife of the savage, the rack and thumb-screw of 
the Holy Inquisition, or the nameless barbarities of the "Un- 
speakable Turk" are all mild and merciful in comparison 
with the tortures heaped upon the inmates of the Southern 
prison hells. How could human beings become so heartless 
and cruel as to let their fellow creatures suffer and die of cold 
and hunger ? The question has been so often asked I beg 
leave just here to say that the people of the South generally, 
if they had been left to follow their own inclinations and de- 
sires, would have made the prisoners comforta1)le ; 
but the rebel authorities were maddened by their fail- 
ure to accomplish, by arms in the field, their scheme of 
secession, and having lost all hope of successfully coping 
with the Yankees in the field, they deliberately devised and 
put into operation that damnable regime of starvation with 
all its concomitant horrors. Why such brutalities were 
allowed by our government to be practiced upon our sol- 
diers, whom the fate of war had thrown into the enemy's 
hands, as I have before stated in this work, I cannot under- 
stand, for the reader will remember that it is stated in a pre- 
vious chapter that the government had stopped the exchange 
of prisoners of war, thus enabling the rebels to starve many 
thousands of our soldiers who otherwise would have been re- 
stored to usefulness in our ranks through exchange. The 
war, it must be remembered, was not waged on the part of 
the North, for the purpose of abolishing slavery, but it was 
fought wath-the sole object of suppressing the rebellion of the 
slave-holding oligarchy of the South against the govern- 
ment of the United States, and instead of going at the trai- 
tors "hammer and tongs," as any other government on earth 
would probably have done, our authorities truckled, with 
honeyed words, hoping to win the recalcitrant states back to 
their allegiance to the Union at any cost short of its own ex- 
istence ; and all this time the uncompromising rebels were 
scorning everv oft'er of reconciliation, and were practicing 



174 Incidents and Adventures iji Rebeldom. 

all the hellish arts of a refined barbarism to win their canse. 

Under the so-called Proclamation of Emancipation, if 
the rebellions states had laid down their arms prior to Jan- 
uary 1st, 1864, they could have resumed their standing in the 
Union and retained their property in human souls, and the 
"sum of all villainies" would probably exist to-day in the 
"land of the free, and the home of the brave,"' as in the ante- 
bellum days. There evidently should have been issued, on 
the day Fort Sumter was fired upon, a proclamation con- 
taining just four words, to-wit : "Unconditional surrender, 
or death I" and the war should have been fought on that 
line, "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth." In that 
case I grant you it would not have dragged its weary length 
through four dreary years and more. 

It seems so strange to us now, standing as we do a 
whole generatiton this side of the momentous transactions 
crowded into the years between April 12th, 1861. and April 
13th, 1865 ; it seems so strange I say, that even our most 
brilliant statesmen and wisest philosophers failed to recog- 
nize the fact that the cup of iniquity of the slave-holding" 
South was filled to repletion, and that we of the North, who 
were not wholly guiltless for its continuance, were the chos- 
en instruments of Providence for the wiping from our na- 
tion's fair escutcheon the foul l)lot of human thraldom. 
Had this underlying fact been recognized from the first, and 
the war prosecuted with the vigor that would naturally grow 
out of such a heaven-imposed task, it doubtless would have 
reached a speedy termination, for our army was composed 
of as courageous a body of men as ever caused old earth to 
tremble to their martial tread. 

However, toward the latter part of January that year, 
an exchange of prisoners was arranged for, and our patients 
were being sent north. Finally my comrades were all taken 
away and my ward was closed, and I was sent to the floor 
below for a few days. While here I formed the acquain- 
tance of a patient whose name was John Suihart, and whose 
home was at Aiassillon, Ohio, and -)f all the poor, lean men 



Exchange of Prisoners. 175 

I had ever seen, John was the thinnest. I think his weight 
would have fallen under fifty pounds. I used my own per- 
son as a standard of measure in such cases, as 1 had, while in 
perfect health, been reduced from one hundred and seventy 
pounds normal weight, until I tipped the beam of the rebel 
scales upon which our rations were weighed to us, at just 
one hundred pounds. So thin was John that I often thought 
that if his stomach itclied he was just as likely to scratch his 
back bone through it as not. 

His condition proved a great puzzle to the rebel doctors 
who were unable to determine the nature of his malady, as 
he became thinner and weaker day by day, and yet showed 
no symptoms of organic disease. His lung power was un- 
impaired and remained remarkably strong, for one so ema- 
ciated as he, and when he took a notion to "yell," as he fre- 
(juently did, his stentorian voice would wake the echoes 
throughout the entire building. John would be talking with 
some comrade or attendant in an ordinary tone of voice, and 
as intelligently as anyone, when perhaps in the midst of a 
sentence he would break off and give vent to the most un- 
earthly yells, screaming, "Ouch ! Ouch ! Oh, Lord ! Oh ! 
Oh !" and then, resuming the conversation where he had 
left off, he would talk on as if nothing had happened. John 
was cared for by a stalwart Michigan cavalryman by the 
name of King, who nursed him tenderly, and handled him as 
easily as an ordinary man could have handled a baby. Final- 
ly the annex to General Hospital No. 21 was closed, and the 
patients and attendants, with the exception of a New Yorker 
by the name of Sawyer, and myself, were all paroled, and the 
last I ever saw of poor John Swihart he was being carried on 
a stretcher toward the boat that was to speed him away in 
the direction of his home in the Northland, but whether he 
died or still lives, I know not. 

Sawyer and myself were now transferred to Hospital 
No. 21 where I had the distinguished honor of being in- 
stalled wardmaster over a small room on the first floor, with 
Sawver as a nurse. This room contained onlv twentv-eight 



176 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldom. 

cots and was reserved for the most desperate cases onh'. 
At about eight o'clock in the morning the rebels brought in 
to my ward a patient for each cot in my room, and thev w^ere 
the toughest, most miserable an pitiful specimens of human- 
ity I ever cast my eyes upon during all my terrible expe- 
rience with destitution, disease and starvation. None of 
these patients had received a bath for a month or more and 
they were smoked until their skins were the color of a 
smoked ham. Clothed in filthy rags and with their skeleton 
frames and gaunt faces, they were indeed pitiful and distress- 
ing objects to behold. We proceeded at once to make the 
poor creatures as comfortnble as was possible under the cir- 
cumstances. 

While we were in the midst of our efforts to make our 
patients more comfortable and presental)le, the rebel doctor 
came in. He was a gray haired man of some sixty years, T 
should say ; his name, if my memory serves me, was Rath- 
burn. I shall never forget the expression of horror which 
overspread the old doctor's face as he looked upon the des- 
perate condition in which these poor wretches were. "My 
God !" he exclaimed, "we can do nothing for these men. 
They will all die. All I can hope to do for them is to make 
it as easy for them as possible ;" and he prescribed ten drops 
of laudanum in a gill of whisky, three times per day, to each 
and every patient. Eight of these men expired within four 
hours after being brougb.t in. Among these men was one, 
John Barman, with whom I had been well acquainted, he 
having belonged to Company F, Eighth Pennsylvania Re- 
serves, my own regiment. 1 had failed to recognize him 
owing to his blackened and terrible condition, but while I 
was fixing him up as comfortably as I could, he called my 
name and told me who he was. Grasping his wasted hand I 
sat down by him on the cot, while in the weak and trembling- 
voice of a dying man, he told me of the horrible deaths of 
many of my comrades, as they had met their fate in the pris- 
on hell at Salisbury ; and as he mentioned the names of 
long-loved schoolfellows, messmates and fellow soldiers. 



Bar-mail^ s Bad News. 177 

who had been swallowed up in that hellish maelstrom of rebel 
malignity, it seemed to me my heart must break, and I g-ave 
way to a flood of tears. But they were not tears of un- 
mingled grief, for indignation claimed her rights. Alas ! 
my comrades, though I. Alas ! brave heroes of many a 
hard fought field ; and is this then thy inglorious end ? 
For shame ! ungrateful Republic ! thus to abandon thy 
gallant sons to the ignominy of death by starvation, when 
one act of justifiable retaliation would have saved their val- 
uable lives for the service of their country. Why could not 
those in authority in our government see, and understand, 
that it was better and more just that a thousand rebels who 
were fighting to destroy our government should die, than 
that one loyal, patriotic man, who had undertaken to defend 
the nation's life, should suffer even the loss of a single cracker 
which might be necessary for his subsistence while he stood 
guard over his country's honor and integrity ? And it 
stands to reason that if the rebels had the food supplies which 
w^ere requisite to sustain their traitorous armies in the field, 
then surely they also had the food necessary to keep their 
prisoners of war from starvation. I never have been able to 
see any possible excuse for our authorities failing to demand 
of the rebels proper treatment of our prisoners of w-ar. 

This news imparted to me by Barman, concerning the 
fate of my poor comrades at Salisbury, was the first tidings T 
had received of them since my escape from the box car, and 
so depressed was I by his narration of the sad and melancholy 
facts concerning them, that I w^as greatly dejected for sev- 
eral days after ; but poor Barman soon after responded to 
the last roll call, and was mustered out of the earthly ranks 
to join the great majority of our comrades on the eternal 
camping grounds above. 

As no clothing was allowed to remain on a corpse. Saw- 
yer removed the ragged habiliments from Barman's body, 
and covering it with a sheet, he and I carried it to a building 
across the way used as a dead house. Oh, my God ! what 
a horrible sight was here presented to our view. I cannot 



178 



Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldom. 



think of it even to this day without a thrill of horror, for there 
on the floor lay sixteen corpses, perfect skeletons, stark 
naked, with eyes, noses and mouths all eaten awav by the 
rats. The eyeless sockets, missing nose and grinning teeth 
of these poor bodies made such a scene of gruesome, hor- 
rible reality as was never conceived of even by the morbid 
imagination of a Dante. No picture of the deepest inferno 
could equal it. vSummon, Oh, Satan, from the remotest re- 
gions of gloomy hades and expend thy hellish vocabulary of 
hate in showering the imprecations of deep damnation on the 
heads of those who planned and perpetrated this fiendish 
mutilation upon these brave and noble dead ! 




Dead House of General Hospital No. 21. 



The dead-cart was purj^osely allowed to make but one 
trip each twenty-four hours, so that those dying after the 
cart-man had made his round could be left in the dead house 
to fatten the rats until the next day. These rats, like the 
vultures on the towers of silence among the Parsees of 
India, from long usage had become adepts in their gastly 
work, and attacked only the eyes, nose and lips of their vic- 
tims until these had been exhausted, and as the supply of new 
corpses was always equal to the demand, they fed on these 
dainties constantly. Now this hideous mutilation could have 
been prevented by having the cart conveying the dead make 



Horr'ors of the Dead House. 179 

two trips daily, and allowing the bodies of those dying after 
the last trip to lie on the cots until the following morning 
or until the cart came around again ; but this you see would 
not have so fully gratified the rebel desire to heap indignities 
upon the Yankee dead. The rat-eaten dead were thrown 
indiscriminately into the cart, like so many logs of wood, a 
tarpaulin was stretched over them and they were hauled out 
through the streets of Christian Richmond and consigned to 
a ditch and slightly covered with earth, and left there unre- 
corded and unknown, to molder back to dust ; and thus was 
their identity effectually obliterated. 

This was the fate of every Union soldier who died at 
General Hospital No. 21 at Richmond, Va., during my so- 
journ there, which covered a period of several months. 
Brave defenders of an ungrateful Republic ! Thou hast 
sealed thy devotion to thy country's cause by a martyr's 
death ! and thy name hast been stricken from the annals 
of earth as though thou hadst never been, but thy memory 
shall remain green in the hearts of thy surviving comrades 
until the grim reaper shall svmimon us also to the eternal 
shore ! 



CHAPTER XV. 

Doom of the Confederacy Drawing Near. 

Among my patients was one, Patrick Kane, who, as 
his name would imply, was an Irishman. He was a member 
of the Seventh Regulars. He was suffering from dropsy and 
although too much reduced from the combined effects of 
disease and starvation to stand upon his feet, or even to sit 
up, he was very pugnacious and was ever ready to fight 
everybody and everything in sight. Pat's cot was located 
about the center of the ward, and if Sawyer, the nurse, did 
not give him the first slice of corn bread cut from the loaf 
when he distributed rations, he would fire his piece at his 
head as soon as he got it into his hand. He finally made 
his mind up that he would take no more medicine, or if he 
did pretend to take it, he would, after holding it in his mouth 
for awhile, squirt it over the other patients. The doctor 
one day told me to hold Pat's nose and make him swallow 
his medicine. I did so, and when he found T was also de- 
termined to make him behave himself, he became despond- 
ent, and although his condition seemed much improved 
and he seemed to be gathering strength, he continued his 
growling. One morning soon after making him take his 
remedies, I said to him, "Well, Pat, how are you this morn- 
ing ?" "Oh, Jasus," says he, "Pm going to die to-night !" 
"Oh, you are all right," I said, "You are getting stronger 
every day." On the following morning I said to him, "Well, 
Pat, I see you did not die last night after all," whereupon 
he smote his breast with his fist, and said, "Be Jasus, if I 
don't die to-night, divil a bit will I die at all, at all," and he 
did not and it was not long after until Pat was paroled, and 
I have every reason to believe he lived to reach God's coun- 
try once more. 

There was partitioned off of the end of my ward a little 



Doom oj the Confederacy Draiving near. 



i«i 



room which Sawyer and myself used as a sort of storeroom 
for medicines and any extra rations which might chance to 
fall into our hands. It was fitted with a bench which extended 
across one end of it, and underneath it was boxed off into 
small compartments, and as the majority of my patients were 
in such a physical condition as to be unable to eat the rough 
food supplied by the rebels, I sometimes had an accumula- 
tion of rations from this source, to which I was able to add, 
from time to time, a little from my own allowance, as I drew 
as wardmaster full allowance. So from this surplus under the 
bench I was often enabled to carry and distribute food to the 
men in the other wards who were in a condition to eat. But 
I was very careful not to let the rebels catch me at it for if 
I had been detected in sharing my rations with the poor 
starving prisoners, I probably would have been hustled off 
to Libby as a punishment. 

The building in which our hospital was located, had, 
prior to the war, been used as a tobacco manufactory and the 
brand of their output was known as "The Conqueror," and 
there were strewn about the place numbers of their circulars, 
upon which was printed the picture of an armored knight 
with plumed helmet and a drawn sword standing over his 
supposedly fallen foe. Some Yank having secured two of 
these circulars cut from them the pictures and printed under 
them the following apt quotations : "He that taketh sword 
shall perish by the sword," and "The sword is my inheri- 
tance, let tyrants tremble," and had pasted them on the wall, 
and strange to say, they were left undisturbed by the John- 
nies ; and as the collapse of the Confederacy follow^ed so 
soon after, it almost seems as if those quotations were pro- 
phetic of the just doom which was so soon to fall upon this 
traitorous conspiracy. Despondency seemed to settle, like a 
thick pall, over the hopes of the rebels from the moment 
they learned of the overwhelming defeat of Geo. B. McClel- 
land for the presidency ; and although rapidly tottering to 
its fall, the agents of the Confederate States (so-called) abat- 
ed no jot or tittle of their malignancy, their desire and effort 



1 82 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldom. 

to kill and destroy seemed rather to intensify in hellish- 
ness, as their hopes of success grew less, until finally she lay 
prone and helpless, Hke a huge serpent, in impotent rage, 
and for want of power to do further damage to the cause of 
humanity, turned and rent its own body, for it is a fact that 
an effort was made by the rebs to destroy their own city of 
Richmond. 

The following are some of the prices of articles of neces- 
sity prevaiHng at the capital of the Confederacy just prior 
to its fall, in Confederate money. One thousand dollars for 
a suit of very ordinary ready-made clothing. Five hundred 
dollars for a barrel of flour. One hundred dollars for a cord 
of wood. One dollar for a loaf of bread weighing not to ex- 
ceed five ounces. One dollar for a clay pipe, and fifty cents 
for a block of matches. Onions could be had for one dollar 
each, and a dollar in greenbacks would purchase forty dol- 
lars in Confederate currency, and it was amusing to observe 
with what avidity the Johnnies would gobble up the few 
greenbacks which came in their way even at the disparity of 
forty to one, thus showing their lack of confidence in their 
government to ever redeem its pledges to the holders of its 
bank notes. 

I have seen Mr. Woodward, the superintendent of the 
hospital, of whom I have before spoken, twist up a twenty 
dollar blueback and use it to Hght his cigar. 

It was now about the middle of March, 1865, and Gen- 
eral Hospital No. 21 was about to pass out of existence with 
the ebbing tide of the rebellion. The greater number of the 
patients had already been paroled, and none were being re- 
ceived, and as you may safely conclude Sawyer and myself 
were anxiously awaiting our turn for release to come. I had 
been suffering for some six weeks from a peculiar and dis- 
tressing disease called by the doctors, the Confederate itch, 
and this circumstance added greatly to my desire to get 
home, as I well knew I could never recover from my malady 
under the rebel regime, and besides my comrades had all been 
released and the loss of their companionship worried me 



Fall of Richmond . 183 

greatly. The itch above referred to was a skin disease which 
made its appearance in the form of small watery pimples no 
larger than a pin-head, confining its attack to breast, hands 
and the insides of the arms and legs. The pimples came out 
in myriads, close together, and were so excruciatingly itchy, 
especially when the suiTerer would approach the fire, as to be- 
come unendurable, and if scratched it served only to exag- 
gerate the suiYering, and to forbear to scratch I believe was 
impossible, as with me it was "scratch Yank or die." Finally 
when the disease had expended its force on one particular 
spot, the rheum would dry up, the skin become indurated, 
and scale off in fiakes. It was several years before I was rid 
of this disease ; even after the lapse of twenty years it would 
occasionally make its appearance upon my person. 

On the 23d of March, 1865, the auspicious moment 
came and Sawyer and myself were, with the few others re- 
maining, paroled and 1 think we were the last squad of Fed- 
eral prisoners to be exchanged. About ten days later Rich- 
mond was captured. Words are inadequate to express the 
happiness and joy we experienced when at last we turned 
our backs upon that detestable city of misery, starvation and 
death, or with what glad exultation we marched down to the 
wharf and boarded the rebel flag-of-truce boat which was to 
bear us back to the sheltering folds of "Old Glory" once 
more. Farewell my dead comrades ! A long farewell ! 
Peacefully sleep, quietly rest ; though it be in the unhal- 
lowed soil of traitorous Virginia. No more shall war's rude 
alarms burst upon your devoted ears ; no more shall an un- 
grateful country call you as a bootless sacrifice to the unholy 
ambitions of false and incompetent chieftains. Sleep. 
Requiescat in Pace ! 

Our boat backed away from her moorings, and we 
steamed away down the James to the outpost of the rebel 
lines, where we were met by a Union vessel to which we were 
transferred, and so at last were beneath the starry folds of 
the banner of the free. Out of the depths of perdition. Out 
of the prison cell. "Out of the jaws of death ; out of the 
mouth of hell." 



184 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldom. 

It was indeed a pathetic spectacle to see those poor, mis- 
erable starved men, clothed in hlthy rag-s, with their weak 
voices cheering at the sight of the old flag, with tears of joy 
and gratitude streaming down their cheeks. We were soon 
on our way to Fortress Monroe, which point we reached in 
the evening, and after a short stay proceeded to cross the bay 
to Annapolis, Md. This was on the night of the 23d of 
March, and the day had been cold and raw. As the night 
came on it was frosty on the Chesapeake, and as the boat 
could furnish neither blankets nor overcoats to the men, they 
were obliged to lie out on deck in the open frost-laden air, 
without covering of any sort. As a conseqeunce, in the 
morning there were several of the poor fellows lying dead 
on the deck, with their glassy eyes staring up at the mast- 
head, where floated the flag they loved so well. And thus, 
on the very threshold of freedom, and so near to friends and 
home, they perished, victims to somebody's carelessness in 
not supplying the boat which was designed to transport these 
starvelings to their homes, with a few blankets. 

In due course oi time we arrived at Annapolis and were 
quartered in the barracks designed for the use of returned 
prisoners. On arrival each prison'er was stripped to the buft', 
given a bath and furnished with a new and complete outfit of 
clothing, and given two months' pay. As I had received no 
pay for almost two years, this money was highly acceptable 
to me and I was enabled to purchase a few dainties and nick- 
nacks of which I had long been deprived. Sawyer's solici- 
tude also seemed largely centered in his stomach, and on re- 
ceiving his money, said he would have one full meal anyhow. 
A peddler coming along at this juncture enabled him to put 
his desire for a fill-up into practical form and illustrated his 
capabilities as a gastronomic expert. The peddler's wares 
consisted of hard boiled eggs with salt and pepper for dress- 
ing, and Sawyer proceeded to put himself outside of twenty- 
six of those eggs, which astonishing feat he accomplished in 
a very short space of time. The peddler's eyes were dis- 
tended in surprise, especially after the disappearance of the 



At Ajnjapolis. 1S5 

first dozen, but as he had evidently strnck a bonanza in Saw- 
yer's unappeasable appetite, for his stock in trade, he offered 
no objection to its reduction. I, however, was alarmed for 
his safety, but I remonstrated and pleaded in vain. I told 
him such a gorge would surely kill him. His reply was. -"hat 
if it did, he would have the satisfaction of dying on a full 
stomach anyhow ; but strange to say he suffered no seem- 
ing inconvenience from his reckless indulgence in hard boiled 
eggs. A few days after this episode Sawyer and I parted 
company, probably never to meet again on the shores of time, 
as I have had no tidings of him since I bade him god-bye 
that March day in parole camp at Annapolis. 

This camp was rather an uninviting spot, especially to 
the returned prisoner, as he was invariably anxious to get 
home to loving friends after his long absence and terrible 
sufferings in Southern prisons. The immense heaps of cast- 
ofi shoes and clothing, crawling with graybacks,, which ac- 
cumulated there, was a constant reminder of his late prison 
life, and he could scarcely realize that he was indeed once 
more a free man. 

I had the good fortune to meet here my old comrade, 
James W. Eberhart. We had not met each other since the 
day upon which we left the inferno at Belle Lsle to be trans- 
ferred to the hell at Salisbury. Eberhart was terribly re- 
duced in flesh, was sick and weak and had entirely lost his 
voice. It is needless to say that our comradeship was re- 
sumed. We ate and slept in the same barrack. He had 
been paroled from Salisbury a month before I was at Rich- 
mond, but the rebels had sent him by the way of Raleigh, 
causing many delays, so that he was nearly a month in reach- 
ing Annapolis. He occupied a bunk directly over mine in 
the barracks and one night while in a trance, he fell out of 
bed and was stunned by the fall, and on being carried out 
into the air and revived his voice suddenly returned to him 
as good as ever. 

Among the rank and file composing a company of 
American volunteers may be found men of such sterling 



i86 Incidents and Adventures ifi Rebeldom. 

qualities of both head and heart as to command the respect 
and admiration of the entire company. Such a man was 
Sergeant James W. Eberhart, of Company G. Generous, 
kind-hearted and uncomplaining, he cheerfully performed 
any duty assigned him, however arduous or dangerous it 
may have been. Brave and courageous at all times, yet so 
gentle and kind to all that he never aroused the ire of any- 
one. His grandfather was a patriotic soldier during the 
"Times that tried men's souls'' at Valley Forge, and the 
grandson was not a whit behind the grandsire in soldierly 
qualities during the war of the Great Rebellion. 

Like all members of the company he was nicknamed. 
He was dubbed "Pedee" and as Pedee he was universally 
known throughout the war. 

To show his equanimity and self-control under aggra- 
vating circumstances. I will relate an incident of camp life 
which occurred at Alexandria. Pedee, who was a member 
of my mess, was an inveterate smoker, and after taking liis 
noonday smoke would aiways lie down for a nap when off 
duty. We had been supplied with waterproof cartridges 
which were inclosed in a glazed film. These films were highly 
explosive and one day while Pedee was sleeping, I emptied 
his half-smoked, short-stemmed pipe of its contents and in- 
serting one of these films in the bottom, replaced the to- 
bacco on top of it. After his nap was over Pedee reached 
for his pipe and, lighting it, sat himself down for a nice quiet 
smoke. Suddenly there was a swish, and the pipe dropped 
to the fioor, while the contents went sailing up his nose, 
which immediately overliung it. Did he sneeze ? Well, 
you would have thought he would sneeze his head off. His 
snorting, sneezing and coughing drew forth shouts of 
laughter from the boys at first, as they all expected him to 
get furious with rage, tear around and threaten to wipe up 
the ground with the noodle-headed imbecile who had served 
him such a measly trick. But he did nothing of the kind. 
After the paroxysm of sneezing was over, without saying a 
word, he picked up his old dudeen, loaded it to the brim with 



Peculiar Characters. 187 

fresh tobacco, lighted it, and sat down for a smoke as cahii- 
ly and placidly as if nothing unusual had occurred. Ninety- 
nine out of a hundred would have been fighting mad upon be- 
ing served such a trick, but Pedee had such complete control 
of his feelings. I never saw him show excitement under the 
most dangerous or aggravating circusmstances. 

In that hell-hole of misery, starvation and death, Salis- 
bury, Pedee was the Good Samaritan, visiting the hospital, 
cheering the despondent and despairing and relieving the 
misery of the sick and dying comrades. Although starving", 
with a devotion sublime, a self-abnegation unequalled, he de- 
prived himself of his rations of bread that he might make 
poultices for those whose desperate sufferings were greater 
even than his own. 

He was attacked by the scurvy and his teeth one by one 
dropped from his jaws. He lost all power of speech, which, 
however, was miraculously recovered after his release from 
prison, as related elsewhere, but under all trying conditions 
whatsoever he remained the same kind, congenial and un- 
complaining Pedee. 

My messmates were all good men and true, but the 
qualities of Sturgiss and Eberhart seemed to have a more 
lasting impression on me than the others. 

The tnree lett flank companies of the regiment, K, G 
and B, naturally became friendly and social, entering into 
each other's sports and becoming acquainted with the in- 
dividual characteristics of its members. Company K had 
two unique members, of whom one was called "Groundhog" 
and the other "Pig-Tracks." The former was a singular 
looking man with a heavy reddish beard and derived his 
name trom the fact that he endeavored to burrow into the 
ground for protection in our first battle, and it would make 
him very wrathy to shout "Groundhog" at him. It is safe to 
say we all became groundhogs and gophers before the war 
was ended. The other man received his euphonious title 
from the fact that whenever he got filled up on commissary 
whisky, he would go about shouting "Pig-Tracks" in the 



^88 Incidents and Adventui'cs in Rebehloni. 

most unaccountable manner. Like "Groundhog,'" he re- 
sented the name, and for this reason they stuck to them 
throughout their service, but what their uhimate fate was 
I do not now recoHect. 

Eberhart left for home several days before I did and 
after he had gone and I had started I was taken violently ill 
on the train with bronchitis, and on arrival at Harrisburg T 
was so weak I could not sit up and had to lie on the station 
platform until the train arrived for Pittsburg. I finally 
reached my home in Uniontown and after being confined to 
my bed for about three weeks I recovered sufficiently to re- 
join my command at Arlington Heights after they had re- 
turned from Richmond. Aftercompleting our muster out 
rolls here we were moved to Harrisburg and I was there dis- 
charged after four years, two months and eleven days of con- 
stant and active service. The slaveholders' rebellion was 
crushed ; the Union was saved ; 

And the Star Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave 
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. 






CHAPTER XVI. 
Salisbury. 

Below will be found a cut of the prison which l)ecame 
so notorious on account of the diabolical tortures which were 
there perpetrated upon the prisoners of war who were unfor- 
tunate enough to fall into the rebel hands during the years 
of strife from 1861 to 1865. It is really and truly humiliat- 
ing- to me. as a soldier of the Republic of the great United 
States of America, to be obliged to record that here at this 
Salisbury prison, prisoners of war, brave, patriotic men. who 
while fighting in defense of their government, were l)y the 
fortunes of war, thrown into the hands of those who were in 
rebellion against that government ; that they should have 
been subjected to such barbarous and inhuman treatment 
by those who had been born, reared and fostered under the 
same beneficent institutions as themselves, and who up to 
the breaking out of the rebellion had been accounted as 
worthy citizens of one of the most highly enlightened and 
thoroughly Christian nations on the face of the earth : I 
blush, I say, with shame for my countrymen, when for truth 
and history's sake, I am obliged to record the diabolical 
treatment which was accorded the Union prisoners at the 
hands of those who were at the time in armed rebellion 
against our government. I fain would frame some excuse, 
some extenuating circumstances or pretexts, if I could, but 
I cannot, and none exist. The bald fact alone remains, that 
the sufferings to which we, as prisoners of war, were sub- 
jected were inflicted coolly, deliberately, and with malice 
aforethought, with a view to either compass our death out- 
right, or to render us hors de combat by reason of the 
wrecked physical condition in which their cruel regime would 
naturally leave us. This and this alone must have been the 
deliberate design, for they had no score of retaliation to 



190 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldom. 

settle, for their men who had fallen as prisoners of war into 
the hands of the government had been and continued to be, 
treated with the utmost kindness and consideration. Every- 
thing was done by our government to render their captivity 
as little galling to them as possible. They were provided 
with clean, comfortable quarters, where sanitary conditions 
were the best obtainable ; they were provided with com- 
fortable clothing and supplied with abundance of wholesome 
food, and particular care was always exercised by our gov- 
ernment to locate their camps of detention where abundant 
supplies of pure water was obtainable, and in addition to all 
these primal arrangements and conditions for the health and 
comfort of the rebel prisoners, there were always in attend- 
ance upon their wounded and sick, the best of medical and 
surgical skill, which was employed for the relief of their suf- 
ferings with as great care and tenderness as would have been 
shown them had they been members of our own legions, in- 
stead of our foemen. 

I thus particularize in regard to the treatment, at the 
hands of our government, of its prisoners of war for the rea- 
son that so many attempts have been made by rebel apolo- 
gists to create a diversion, from the fact that the Confederate 
or rebel authorities did treat prisoners of war with hellish 
cruelty, by asserting that their soldiers, held as prisoners at 
the North, were also treated with barbarity ; but in clear 
and complete refutation of this charge of the rebels, is the 
historic fact that the rate of mortality among the rebel pris- 
oners confined in Northern prisons, was more than fifty per 
cent, less than among the Union prisoners confined in South- 
ern prisons, and this great disparity in the death rate be- 
tween the prisoners dying in the hands of the North, and 
of the South, is explainable wholly and solely by the fact that 
the great majority of those dying in Southern prisons were 
actually starved to death, or were so tar reduced in strength 
by starvation, purposely inflicted for the securing of that 
end, that they fell an easy prey to diseases which swept 
them otT in ureat numbers. I realize how hard it is for the 



Salisbury Prison. 



191 




< 



192 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldom. 

average American citizen to believe it possible that one por- 
tion of the people of this great and enlightened country 
could have been so incensed at the other that they would 
have resorted to such means to satisfy their spleen ; but that 
they did is as true as the Gospel, for there are living to-day, 
thirty-three years after the close of the war, strange as it 
may seem, hundreds of men who attest to the truth of the 
statements made in regard to the treatment of the Union 
soldiers who passed time in the prison pens of the South, 
and the universal declaration made by these men is that the 
half has not been told, neither can be, for with me, they fully 
agree that human language utterly fails to furnish words 
with which to faithfully paint the pictures of suffering and 
distress wdiich our brave boys were called to pass through 
as prisoners of war in the pens of the South, and more es- 
pecially at Salisbury, N. C. 

As we have before said earlier in this volume, the first 
thing that happened to a prisoner upon falling into the 
hands of the rebels, was that he w'as carefully robbed of all 
his valuables, such as watch, money and pocket knife ; then 
he was stripped of hat, coat, vest and shoes, and indeed in 
many instances I have seen men made by rebel officers to 
give up their pants, leaving them bareheaded, barefooted, 
and with nothing to cover their nakedness but their under- 
garments, blankets and overcoats being the first things 
usually to be grabbed from the prisoners by the greedy, 
brutal rebels, and thus the men were left to shiver and suffer 
from exposure to the frosts of the fall and winter nights of 
that latitude. And then to supplement the suft'erings caus- 
ed by nakedness, the regime of starvation was at once com- 
menced and I assure, vou, that it was carried on to comple- 
tion, for I think if the arch fiend himself had been set to de- 
vise ways and means to make the process of starvation com- 
pletely torturous and horril)le, he could not have improved 
upon the methods adopted by those who were intrusted 
with the care of the prisoners by the rebel authorities, for 
without question it would have been more merciful to 



Character' of Food Supplied. 1 93 

withhold food entirely and allow the victims to die in 
a relatively short space of time, than to have pursued the 
course they did, subjecting- their victims to the pangs of slow, 
but no less sure, death l)y starvation. 

To prove these facts I wish to say a word here in regard 
to the bread made from the cob meal. The rebel authorities 
well knew that there was not a particle of nutriment in a 
corn cob, and they also knew that a human being could only 
live at most for a few months if fed upon bread made from 
corn, ground cob and all. Therefore for the purpose of kill- 
ing ofif the prisoners more rapidly this corn cob bread was 
invented and introduced through their hellish ingenuity. 
The poor, weak, half-starved creatures compelled to eat this 
bread would be attacked by a violent diarrhoea which in 
their weakened condition would soon become acute ; then 
chronic and in a short time end in a lingering death. This 
w^as surely an effectual means of converting live Yankees into 
dead ones. 

Captain Davis of a New York regiment was shot by a 
guard when he was not near the dead line. This was 
another of their favorite methods of making dead Yankees 
and many innocent, inoffensive prisoners were thus brutally 
murdered, the rebel authorities urging and inciting the prac- 
tice by giving a thirty-day furlough to the murderer as a 
reward. 

As enough has been said of the brutal rebel regime in 
this prelude to Sahsbury, I submit, by the kind permission 
of Comrade C. H. Golden, of Jacksonville, Greene County, 
Pa., an account of his miserable and fearful suffering in that 
hell-hole of despair and death. Comrade Golden was a mem- 
ber of my company, and his account, in connection with my 
own, gives complete and truthful history of the sufferings of 
the company in the prisons of the South. 



CHAPTER XVII. 
Comrade Goldex's Experienxe. 

"A realistic ston* 

Without any gush or glory : 

With no sentiment! limelight. 
And no fire work display.'' 

I was a private soldier during the civil war. I enlisted 
as a recniit in the Eighth Regiment, P. R. \'. C. and was 
taken to Camp Copeland. near Pittsburg. (Braddock's field) 
January, 1864. I was here detailed as second clerk in the 
quartermaster's office, Joseph R. Harrah being first clerk, 
who was also here and was a sergeant from One Hundred 
and Fortieth Regim.ent Pennsylvania A'olunteers. The last 
day of May I requested the post commandant and quarter- 
master to relieve me from duty, and return me to my regi- 
ment. The commander of the post refused to grant my re- 
quest. I then and there resolved to go to my regiment 
without their permission, and did make my way from Camp 
Copeland. Pa., to near Petersburg, \'a., and there found my 
coveted prize. Company H, One Hundred and Xinety-First 
Regiment. At this time, about the first of June, all the vet- 
erans and recruits ot the Reserve regiments were consolidat- 
ed into two regiments, known as the One Hundred and X'ine- 
tieth and One Hundred and X'inety-First Regiments. Penn- 
sylvania \'olunteer Infantry. The two regiments at this 
time formed the Third Brigade, in the Third Division, Fifth 
Army Corps, G. R. Warren commanding. As I commenced 
to narrate my prison life and countermarches during the 
summer, in front of a vigilant enemy about Petesburg, I will 
confine myself to that subject. 

On the 14th of August, the Fifth Corps marched out 
irom the front line, before Lee's army, and about noon we 
struck the Weldon railroad at Ream's Station. Our regi- 



Experiences in the Field. 19; 

ment did not tear up the track, but we did the fighting while 
others of our corps destroyed the railroad for several miles, 
and as we held on to the road, we pushed on toward the 
south and rear of Petersburg. But the Confederates saw 
the danger and were at their old flank movement. Taking 
a road unknown to our commander they came suddenlv 
upon us, taking a Maryland brigade in the flank and hurling 
it back. We arrested the charge, however, repelled the 
Confederates, and fortifying our position, held the Weldon 
railroad at last. But the usual slow movements nearly 
proved disastrous to \\arren. He was without support, and 
at a distance from the rest of the army. The space between 
should have been filled by General Bragg, whom our corps 
commander again ordered to occupy it. Before it was done. 
Hill charged according to the uniform Confederate plan, 
striking our brigade on the flank and rear, capturing twenty- 
five hundred men. including about one regiment of the Sec- 
ond Brigade — all of the Third Division. ^Crawford's). 
We were hurried from the field into the south side of Peters- 
burg, but a few of our men or otticers made their escape. We 
were rolled up as it were, doubled back, which crushed the two 
brigades. A sadder looking lot of men never entered the 
Confederacy than we looked and felt. As the rebel guards 
marched us through the streets of Petersburg, we were 
cursed and abused to such an extent that we could hardly 
stand it. The women and little boys ran along and threw 
stones at us. It had been raining and the streets were full 
of muddy water. The boys threw muddy water in our faces, 
and the women from fine houses ran at us with fiendish faces 
and demoniacal yells, and would say "Grant is taking Peters- 
burg. The old butcher." A rebel omcer on horseback 
dashed up to me. grabbed by hat. without even having an in- 
troduction to me. and threw back to me his old lousy linsey 
one in its place. 

\\"e were marched over a small bridge to an island in 
the Appomattox River. We were ordered to remain, while 
a heavy guard was placed over us during the night. This 



196 Incidents and Advenht7^es in Rebeldom. 

being- the i6th day of August. As soon as I discovered 
that all hope of escape during- the night had been cut off, A. 
J. Bissett, my messmate, and myself lay down to sleep. It 
would have been pleasant indeed to lose ourselves in grate- 
ful unconsciousness of our unfortunate condition for a short 
time, but I found it impossible to do so. Although weary 
in body my mind was in such a disturbed condition that I 
found it impossible to fall asleep. 

After darkness enveloped the camp, we found to our 
sorrow that the camp was not only guarded by thieves but 
was alive with them. We used every precaution in hiding 
all our belongings under our bodies, for the rebels had then 
taken our blankets and overcoats. After tying our shoe 
strings in hard knots. It was well for us that we had made 
so secure our precious traps before we lay down to rest, and 
at last tired nature overcame us and we fell into a deep 
sleep. The thieves had found us, and they were at work on 
our shoes, but only succeeded in making off with my most 
valuable utensil, a quart tin cup, which I grieved so much 
over the loss of such an indespensable article in my long im- 
prisonment. August 17th, Saturday. After the beautiful 
orb of day had risen above the earth, all was astir in this 
camp, and without apology to us for not giving the 
Yankees something to eat, marched us to the cars, and 
secured every mothers' son of us free transportation to Rich- 
mond, the capital of the so-called Confederacy. We arrived 
late in the evening. We were hurried from the cars and into 
the Pemberton building and as we were fully accounted for 
by the proprietor for one night's lodging, we lay ourselves 
down to sleep ; but as our stomachs were empty and had 
been for forty-eight hours, we could not sleep, but only talk 
of Greene County and its good things. The morning 
dawned again and found us without anything to eat. This 
was our first Sunday in the Confederacy. We were soon 
called out into the street of the city, and marched up along 
the canal to a building which was in appearance like a state 
penitentiary, and as we were halted in front of this mam- 



Entrance inio Libby. 197 

moth building, the terrible wail came from our ranks and 
from the throat of one who had seen this building before, 
the plain word "Libby." We were ordered in two ranks, 
file left, march ; and as no one preceded us we ran up 
against the brick walls in the historic prison. This day was 
called Jewish Sabbath, and many of us who were there that 
day will never forget it. In this place we were called up in 
line, and searched the second time for valuables and money. 
The two men who entered the room were rebel officers and 
said to be of Hinglish origin, don't you know. At any rate 
they wxre expert thieves. The rebels with a malignity that 
would disgrace a South Sea heathen, dropped on the floor 
pictures of our dear ones, and stamped them to pieces. The 
men's faces were livid with rage and indignation, but we were 
powerless to prevent it, although these South Sea islanders 
got all we had, only the clothes on our backs. Near noon 
we received our first ration since our capture ; we ate it all 
at one meal. If my readers would not say it was a lie, I 
would describe my first ration in this, I must say, infamous 
prison. At this time the rebels issued, and did on this day, 
as my ration, a loaf of bread as large as a man's fist, made of 
cornmeal. It weighed perhaps four ounces, and with it was 
given a piece of meat weighing two ounces. The sergeant 
over the division divided the ration for the prisoners, as we 
always selected one of our non-commissioned officers to draw 
and divide the ration. The sergeant would say to the man 
who would call aloud, "Who's this ?" Caller would answer, 
"Jack Bissett ;" and "Who's this ?" "Golden," etc. At 
this first ration of meat my lot was an eyeball of a beef's head. 
As I was forty-eight hours without eating solid food since 
being captured, the physical man overcame; the intellectual. 
The number of prisoners confined in Libby prison at any 
one time was never very large, but this was owing solely to 
the fact that its capacity was limited. "Standing room 
only." Large numbers were confined there temporarily and 
transferred to the worse holes further south. The total num- 
ber of the unwilling guests did reach far up into the thous- 



198 Incidents and Adventiwes in Rebeldom. 

ands. Notwithstanding the discomforts and deprivations of 
the prisoners, and the ahiiost total lack of hospital service, 
the death rate, althongh large, never approached that of many 
of the other prison pens, notably Belle Isle, Millen, Salisbury 
and Andersonville. Hundreds of brave men died there in ab- 
ject squalor and wretchedness. Hundreds died after their 
release from the etTects of rebel brutality, while a few of us 
survive, living w^itnesses to the martyrdom which well nigh 
wrecked our tortured bodies. We remained but a few days 
in this prison, for Libby was overtiowdng wdth prisoners. 
Many more were arriving from beyond the Weldon railroad, 
and from the Second Corps. In a few days we were all 
called out of the Libby prison and formed in four ranks. 
Many of the boys sang "Tramp ! Tramp !" and "John 
Brown's body lies moldering in the ground," thinking we 
were going home. But alas ! we were marched off and over 
and through the Tredegar Iron Works to Belle Isle. 

Its very name now sends a thrill of horror through my 
verv' being, as well as to thousands of hearts. Those who 
suppose that Libby prison witnessed all the horrors of the 
Southern captivity must learn that a still lower depth of suf- 
fering is yet to be exposed. 

Belle Isle is a small island in the James River, which, as 
viewed from a little distance, has enough pretentions of 
beauty to justify its name. A portion of the island consists 
of a bluff covered with trees ; but the part used as a prison 
pen was low, sandy and barren, without a tree to protect it 
trom the rays of the sun. The Belle Isle prison pen was an 
inclosure of some four or five acres, surrounded by an earth- 
work several feet high, with a ditch on either side. On the 
edge of the outer ditch guards were stationed all around the 
enclosure at intervals of forty feet. The interior of the en- 
closure had some resemblance at a distance to an encamp- 
ment, a number of low tents being set in regular rows. Close 
inspection revealed the fact that the tents were old, rotten 
and torn and at best could have sheltered only a small per- 
centage of the prisoners. Within these low tents were hud- 



Belle Isle Prison, 199 

died from fourteen to sixteen tliousand men at one time. 
(September), not housed up in walls nor buried in dungeons, 
but simply turned into the field like so many animals, to find 
shelter when and how they might. So crowded were they 
that if each man had lain down on the ground, occupying the 
generous allotment of a '"hospital grave." say seven feet bv 
two, the whole area of the enclosure would have been cov- 
ered. Here thousands of us lay from the i8th of August. 
1864. until the 8th of October, with naught but the sky for 
a covering and sand for a bed. ^Vhen the hot glare of the 
summer sun fell upon the oozing morasses of the J^imes, cov- 
ering its stagnant pools with green slime, we prayed in vain 
for some shelter from the sickening heat of day, and torrents 
of rain at night, that our fevered bodies might be dipped in 
the stream beyond. But no. we were forced to broil and 
bake under the tropical rays of a mid-clay sun. or huddled to- 
gether like cattle throughout the livelong night in the pour- 
down storm. Some of us burrowed in the sand, while others 
scooped out a shallow ditch long enough and wide enough 
to receive their bodies, and covering it with brush, made a 
temporary refuge. Wdien the rain descended they were 
forced to abandon this haven of rest. 

What can I say of the food ? It was worse than that at 
Libby prison and less of it. No man in God's country ever 
fed his swine on such swill. , A fragment of cornbread. per- 
haps half ground, containing cob. husk and all ; meat, often 
tainted, very mule-like, and only a mouthful at that ; a 
tablespoonful of rotten beans ; soup thin and briny, and 
worms floating on top. Not all these luxuries at once, only 
one at a time, and that in quantity insufficient to support a 
child of four years. As the weary days and nights dragged 
on, hunger told its inevitable tale on all ; diarrhoea, scruvy. 
low malarial fevers and lung diseases set in. We poor cap- 
tives became weak and emaciated. Many could not walk ; 
when they attempted it, giddiness and blindness came on 
and they fell in their tracks. I shall never forget, during the 
month of September, I had become so weak from the ex- 



200 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldoin. 

posure and eating unwholesome food that for three weeks I 
could not straighten myself. The prisoners were turned out 
every day on the other part of the island, and guarded while 
the enclosure was being cleaned up, after which we would be 
marched back in four ranks, and counted into the enclosure. 
I w^as one of the prisoners in the rear of the column. I was 
too weak to keep up. A rebel sergeant of the guards be- 
came infuriated at me, and grabbing a musket out of a 
guard's hand, struck and felled me to the ground. Some of 
my comrades tenderly carried me into the enclosure and 
restored me to consciousness. 

To add to all this misery there came unavoidable con- 
sequences of being herded and crowded together. Lice 
were in all quarters. The bodies of prisoners were encrust- 
ed with dirt and vermin. They were sore from lying in the 
sand and some were lice-eaten to such an extent that hardly 
a healthy patch of skin was visible. All manner of rumors 
would originate from the rebels who had charge of us, es- 
pecially the officers. We did not think it could be possible 
that our enemies could fmd a more terrible place than the one 
we were leaving, but then we did not know anything of the 
horrors of Salisbury, and it was fortunate for us we did not, 
and that that terrible future was hidden from us, for could we 
have foreseen the horror and misery of the prison that was 
to receive us, we would have given up in utter despair. It 
was only the continuous hope of a speedy release that en- 
abled us to Hve through it. 

On the 8th of October we were marched from Belle Isle 
prison out through the Tredegar Iron Works and on over 
into Manchester, a town directly opposite Richmond where 
we were loaded on the cars as so much inanimate freight, and 
at seven o'clock p. m., we started on our long journey for 
Salisbury, N. C. We did not know at the time where we were 
going, but from what we learned from the guards, we sup- 
posed our next prison would be somewhere in the far south. 
We were placed in and on top of freight cars. The first 
night, between Richmond and Danville, Va., the suffering 



Sa/isbiny Prison. 20i 

was more than I had ever witnessed, suffering h-om diarrhoea, 
cramp in the stomach and unquenchable thirst. At last 
morning came. We had reached the city of Danville, about 
one hundred and forty miles from Richmond. We changed 
cars at this place, and comrade James M. Seals, of my com- 
pany, begged a large ear of corn, and burned it at the fire 
where the railroad men were drying sand. I ate this burnt 
corn during the day and felt much better. We were ordered 
aboard the cars. Again A. J. Bissett and I were on top of 
a box car with other prisoners. We remained there all day, 
and oh, how cold that wind was upon us. without blanket or 
overcoat, only thin cotton pants, short coat, and those in rags 
and desperately lousy. As the darkness of night was closing 
above us the train stopped. We had reached a place called 
Salisbury, in North Carolina, and this was to be, will say, 
home or hell. 

I was so very cold and stiff I had to be helped from the 
train and into the prison. We had by this time found out 
that Salisbury was to be our place of imprisonment, and var- 
ious were the conjectures as to what kind of a place it was, 
and what kind of treatment we would receive from our jailors. 
Surely in our case, "ignorance was bliss." We were informed 
by some of the guards that it was a camp in the woods, and 
that alone made the impression that it would be a better 
place than prison life in a building like Libby or Belle Isle. 
The description we received of the place was not unfavorable, 
and the rebels assured us that the treatment we would receive 
would be much better than that which we received in Rich- 
mond. Whether they did this from ignorance, or from a de- 
sire to keep the truth from us until they had us safely enclosed 
in the pen, or from a fiendish desire to increase our torture 
by disappointment, we could not find out ; but we did dis- 
cover that they were liars or ignorant of what they were talk- 
ing about, and that all our former experiences and suffering 
in rebel prisons were but an intimation of what was still in 
store for us. 



202 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldom. 

"But that I am forbid 
To tell the secrets of my prison-house, 
I could a tale unfold, whose lightest word 
Would harrow up thy soul ; freeze thy young 

blood, 
Make thy two eyes like stars start from their 

spheres ; 
And each particular hair to stand on end 
Like quills upon the fretful porcupine." 

In writing the following description of Salisbury, or 
what I have already said of Libby and Belle Isle, I do not 
intend to describe the horrors of the places more than is ab- 
solutely necessary to set forth the scenes enacted ; and in 
writing this short account of my prison life in the South, I 
do not expect to produce much of a literary work, but mere- 
ly a simple, truthful story of life in Southern prisons. I claim 
but one merit for this narration — truth — and I shall not re- 
late anything but what I know to be the truth, and that 1 
will be willing to answer for on the great day of final account. 
If things should appear that may seem incredible to you, dear 
reader, please remember that comparatively little is known 
of the sufTerings of our soldiers in the South ; if much has 
been said, much more has been left unsaid, and a great deal 
will remain "with the secrets of unwritten history." No 
tongue can express, no pen can describe the sufferings of the 
inmates of the prisons of the South ; and it is only through 
the experience given to the public by the survivors that this 
thrilling part of the history of the war can become known. 
No chapter in the Civil War is so imperfectly understood as 
the one relating to the military prisons of the South. This 
part of the history of our country can only be given by those 
who endured its horrors, and tasted of its bitterness ; survi- 
vors of these stockades and most terrible dens will tell the 
story of their sufferings to friends until the last of them 
have passed away ; but much will remain with the unwritten 
history of the w'ar. 

It must, however, be remembered that the stern reality 
of our prison life, the horrible scenes there enacted, are not 



Salisbury Prison. 203 

brilliant romances or stories of fiction, and, if thing-s should 
appear that seem incredible to you, remember that in reality 
comparatively little is known of the suffering of the inmates 
of these Southern hell-holes ; and from all you may glean 
from those who endured their horrors, and relate their suffer- 
ings, yet will it be far short of the whole truth — for no human 
pen or tongue can describe the agony, wretchedness and mis- 
ery the poor soldiers endured who fell into the hands of the 
rebels. 

In Salisbury alone, over twelve thousand Union prison- 
ers, who were in the prime of life — strong, robust and healthy 
— perished. And in all the Southern prisons, as near as could 
be ascertained, about seventy thousand men fell victims to 
rebel brutality. 

To Jefferson Davis, his cabinet, advisers, and to the 
demons whom they sent to the prisons to carry out their dev- 
ilish plans, and who appear to have been well adapted to that 
kind of work, belongs the infamy of perpetrating one of the 
most horrible crimes known in the history of the world, and 
one that will forever remain a blot and stigma on that page 
of our country's history. 

The prison at Salisbury was for some time a palace as 
compared to other pens, but ere long it degenerated into one 
of the worst. The prison yard covered some four acres, and 
it was surrounded by a high board fence. A few tents were 
set up in the yard, but when the number of prisoners in- 
creased to thousands there was not shelter enough for one- 
half of them. Thousands were exposed to the weather, day 
and night, throughout the entire winter, and in a majority of 
the cases the men possessed neither overcoat nor blanket, 
not even a blouse nor a pair of shoes. In this condition of 
semi-nudity we burrowed in the earth, crept under buildings 
or worried through the chill December nights in the open air, 
lying unsheltered upon the muddy, frozen or snowy ground. 
To see these brave sufferers, coatless, hatless and shoeless, 
shivering around the yard, was a sight piteous beyond de- 
scription, i 



204 hicidents a7id Adventures in Rebeldom. 

The rations were one pint of cornmeal, col) included, 
and one pint called rice or bean sonp, once a day, without salt, 
perhaps even more scanty. The men were organized into 
divisions of one thousand each, and the divisions were sub- 
divided into squads of one hundred. It was a daily occur- 
rence that one or more divisions were kept without a mouth- 
ful of food for twenty-four hours, and in some cases as long 
as forty-eight hours. The prisoners sold every scrap of their 
personal belongings, often down, to the shirts on their backs, 
to obtain money to buy bread, and it took from five to twenty 
dollars of Confederate money to buy one small loaf. At this 
very time the commissary warehouse in Salisbury was packed 
to the roof with corn and pork, and this starvation of the pris- 
oners was a deliberate and willful piece of cruelty on the part 
of Major John H. Gee, the post-commandant. When a sub- 
ordinate, who knew of the plenty which existed, asked Gee 
for permission to give the prisoners full rations, this chival- 
rous product of Southern civilization replied, "No them, 

give them quarter rations !" 

To call the filthy pens where the sick soldiers were con- 
fined, "hospitals," is a strange perversion of the English lan- 
guage. A better term would be "slaughter-houses"' — and in 
fact that was the term applied to them by the inmates of the 
Salisbury prison. Long, low structures, averaging twenty- 
five by seventy feet, some of brick and others of logs, they 
were unattractive without and unspeakal)ly horrible within. 
The sick and dying prisoners lay in rows on the rough, cold 
floors ; no beds or bedding — rows of ghastly, starving faces 
— skeletons in rags. To see that spectacle once was to see 
it forever. The wasted forms, the sad, pleading eyes of those 
sufferers, the sobs of sorrow and the wails of despair, the aw- 
ful hack ! hack ! hack ! — such scenes and sounds can never be 
forgotten. The nurses could not even procure water enough 
to wash the liands and faces of those sick and dying men, and 
there they lay in the filth that proceeded from their own 
bodies. The air in these enclosures was stifling, and one 



Desposition of the Dead. 205 

would have thought would be sufficient to poison all sources 
of life within. 

The last scene was the dead wagon with its ghastly load 
of stiffening corpses piled in like cord wood, the arms and 
legs swaying with the motion of the cart, the pitiful white 
faces staring, with dropped jaw and stony eyes, rattling along 
to the trenches outside, where its precious burden was hastily 
dumped and covered over with a few inches of dirt. Suffer- 
ing everywhere ! Not a face relaxing into a smile, every eye 
dull with despondency, every cheek sunken with want, every 
lip trembling with unuttered pain. From every tent and hut, 
from every hole in the ground, came forth gaunt and ghastly 
men perishing by inches, naked, hungry, ravenous, wild with 
pain and suffering. Imagine a raw December day. The air 
is raw and penetrating, the ground is half covered with slush 
and snow, and a chilly rain is falling. Of the twelve thous- 
and poor wretches within the prison walls, less than one-half 
can find shelter in the buildings, tents and mud huts ; the 
rest are striving as they may to escape the blighting blasts 
this dreary afternoon. Hundreds are shoeless, with no 
clothing save a light blouse or shirt, with, perhaps, a pair of 
thin cotton trousers, never strong and now tattered and torn. 
Starved and hollow-eyed creatures everywhere. We huddle 
over a fire of green and smoky wood in a crowded tent ; the 
very atmosphere is suffocating. We cling shiveringly to the 
outside chimneys of the squalid hospitals, hoping to extract a 
little warmth from the half-heated bricks. We curl ourselves 
up in the narrow caves while the burning pine fills our eyes 
with smoke without warming our benumbed bodies. We 
stand with pallid cheeks and wistful eyes, begging for admis- 
sion even into those "slaughter pens" where our sick com- 
rades are lying in dirt, distress and despair. Night comes, 
but with it no relief. The darkness shadows the misery, but 
intensifies it. The men lie down wherever the chance 
affords, huddling together for mutual warmth. A dozen of 
us fill a trench. At sunrise some of us arise and resume our 
weary tramp and some are frozen stiff. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

The Massacre at Salisbury. 

One cold November clay tlie crisis came. A handful 
of men resolved to break from onr captivity or perish in the 
attempt. Without deliberation or concert, but acting 
solely upon a momentary impulse, a portion of the pris- 
oners made a desperate, ill-advised and futile effort to escape 
from bondage. Forty-eight hours we had been without 
food, even the scanty prison fare being denied us. We were 
weak and faint, but desperation gave us superhuman 
strength. 'AVe may as well perish by the swift bullet of the 
guard as by the systematic starvation of the authorities," we 
said. A rebel relief of sixteen men entered the prison yard 
at noon. The stoutest and most desperate prisoners, armed 
with clubs, sprang upon them. The rebel soldiers, surprised 
by the onset, were quickly disarmed. One guard resisted, 
but a quick bayonet thrust let out his life-blood. The rest 
rushed back to the camp outside and gave the alarm. The 
prisoners all rushed to one part of the enclosure, hoping to 
make a break in the walls. Axes we had none, not even a 
pick or crowbar. The clubbed musket was insufficient ; 
not a man escaped from the yard. Had we divided our 
forces into small squads, some might have escaped in the con- 
fusion of the guards. As it was we were massed in one spot 
and in less than three minutes from the outbreak, every mus- 
ket in the garrison was turned upon us, and two or three 
field pieces were hurling grape and canister into the strug- 
gling throng. Not a man was freed, but one hundred and fif- 
ty lay stretched upon the ground, not one of whom, in all 
])r()l)ability had anything to do with the insurrection. After 
the occurrence cold blooded murders w^ere frequent. Guards 
would deliberately shoot and kill prisoners at will, without 
the slightest rebuke from the authorities. The negro pris- 



Experiences in Prison. 207 

oners were the chief objects of tliis murderous practice, but 
black and white fared alike. The excuse and opportunity 
for wholesale slaughter was too good to be neglected. 

Some of the men in Salisbury prison died in lingering 
agony, and others passed away instantly as though their 
spirits had suddenly given up the unequal struggle, and had 
parted from the pain-racked bodies. Many died from actual 
starvation, their stomachs being unable longer to digest the 
food. For a man to find, on awakening in the morning, 
that the comrade by his side was cold in death was an oc- 
currence too common to be noted. 

I have had men, since the war, to say they would not be 
taken prisoners, and if they had, would have made their es- 
cape, etc. On second thought a true and brave soldier 
would say, such a man would never be close enough to be 
taken prisoner. I want my readers to understand that we 
had all opportunity, during the months of January and Feb- 
ruary, to leave Salisbury prison. Once a week or oftener 
they would ofTer us liberty if we would take the oath to the 
so-called Confederacy, telling us that all they would require 
of the galvanized Yankees was to guard forts and build forti- 
fications. This Captain Wirz No. 2, of Salisbury, would 
mount the stockade, or fence, along side of the guards and 
call the prisoners close up to the fence. The poor creatures, 
with sunken eyes, skinny and ghastly looking faces, would 
stagger up to hear what this babbler had to say. 

"All you Yankee prisoners who want to take the oath to 
the Confederate States of America will please come up close 
to the small gate here, and go out into a good clean camp, 
and have plenty to eat." Although food, clothing and life 
were offered them to 1)etray their country, less than five per 
cent, accepted the offers ; and it is but justice to them to 
sav that some of these iied to the Union lines at the lirst op- 
portunity that presented itself. ^\j<^\^<i^ 

This noble son of southern chivalry, by using every vile 
epithet against our men and officers at the head of the general 
government, calling us Lincoln hirelings, and Grant, the 



2o8 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldom. 

old butcher, would not exchange us man for man. We could 
not help contrasting the generosity of our government 
toward their captives, with our miserable condition : and is 
it strange that we sometimes felt embittered against the gov- 
ernment for not making a greater effort to release us. But 
as true as the needle to the pole so were most of the Union 
prisoners confined in the Southern prisons to the government 
they had sworn to defend. They might feel themselves 
slighted, neglected or even deserted by the government, and 
among themselves be tempted to say some bitter things ; 
but a word or insinuation to that effect from their enemies 
. would excite their ire and indignation to the utmost, and they 
w^ere always ready to defend the government from the charge 
that it was not doing all it could to release them. It was, 
however, a sad fact that hundreds died with the fear haunting 
them that it was so. Men who had cheerfully faced death on 
many a battlefield, lay down and died broken-hearted, as the 
terrible suspicion forced itself into their minds that the gov- 
ernment they loved so well and had fought so hard to save, 
was indifferent to their sad fate. That fifteen thousand men 
had suffered all the horrors of a living death, and that more 
than twelve thousand died from exposure and starvation 
rather than betray their country, estal:»lished the fact that 
there is no spot on the face of the earth where greater hero- 
ism or loyalty was displayed than in this horrid prison pen. 

These men, exposed to the cold winds by day, and to 
rain and snow and sleet by night, suffering from maddening* 
thirst and gnawing hunger, consumed by lice and maggots, 
suffering from scurvy till their teeth dropped from their gums 
enduring all the pain, agony and misery that could be in- 
flicted on them, and dying at the rate of more than fifty a 
day, unflinchingly remained faithful to their flag. A great 
army of these, and many of them our near and dear friends, 
passed away to the great beyond, ^^"e left their frail bodies 
and they were buried in a strange land. They quietly sleep 
wdiere the woodbine twineth and the weary are at rest. I 
have but one tribute to offer, prayers for the living, tears for 
the dead. 



Descriptioti of the Hospital. 209 

I have already given a partial description of the hospital 
at Salisbury, although I am fully aware that almost a third 
of a century has passed, and a new generation has come upon 
the stage, and they perhaps will require more testimony 
that is impartial. I do not consider it necessary, how- 
ever, to give a long description of the hospital, but 
to give the reader a proper conception of the place, 
I will give an extract from the testimony of Dr. Bates, 
a physician from the state of Georgia, and eniployed 
by the rebel government at the hospital. He said : "I saw 
a number of men and was shocked. Many of them were ly- 
ing partially naked, dirty and lousy, in the sand ; others 
crowded together in small buildings, unserviceable at the 
best. I felt disposed to do my duty, and aid the sufferers 
all I could, but knowing it was against orders to take any- 
thing to the men, I was obliged to slip whatever I took to 
them very slyly in my pockets. They frequently asked me 
for a teaspoonful of salt, or for orders of siftings of meal, that 
they might make a little bread. Again they have gathered 
around me and asked for a bone. I found persons lying dead 
among the living, and thinking they merely slept 1 have tried 
to wake them up and found they were taking their everlast- 
ing sleep. This was in the hospital, but I judge it was the 
same all through the stockade.'' 

In Salisbury prison, besides buildings called hospitals, 
was a brick building about forty feet long by twenty feet 
wide, with a fire place in it and a dirt floor. This was called 
the dead house, where all the dead were deposited during the 
day and night. The men who had charge of the dead house 
lived well, and they both belonged to my company and were 
from Greene county. I say the men lived sumptuously every 
day, although some of our most unfortunate Greene coun- 
tians begged of them even the crumbs that fell from their 
haversacks and they would not give them a single one. As I 
may create a desire on the part of my readers to know how 
men could live well having charge of the morgue or dead 
house, I will say the dead were taken to the dead 'house with 



2IO Incidents a7id Adventures in Rebeldom. 

their clothes they had on, and many of them had money sew- 
ed up in those old clothes or rags ; sometimes jewelry and 
other valiiahles were found. The clothing was removed ex- 
cept the drawers, if they had any, and these poor bodies of 
our once near and dear comrades were handled in their nude 
state and loaded into an old fashioned wagon and hauled out- 
side to be placed in the trenches by our other dead. "What 
is man that thou are mindful of him ? And the son of man 
that thou visited him ?" Man is a thinking, reflecting being, 
intellectually speaking, but physically speaking man is an 
animal of the higher order. I was fully convinced by my long- 
imprisonment, by not having proper food for mind or l^ody, 
the mind became enfeebled to a greater extent than the body, 
and the finer feelings of the intellectual man had left. Only 
the animal part predominated. Some of the prisoners died 
so suddenly that we could hardly realize that they had passed 
away. On one occasion a mere boy belonging to my com- 
pany, Perry Hickman, whose home was in Newtown, White- 
ley Township. Greene County, died. As gently and quietly 
as falls the autumn leaf, his pure spirit left his tortured body 
and winged its way to a better and more blissful land. 

''Matted and damp are the curls of gold 

Kissing the snow of the fair young brow. 
Pale are the lips of delicate mould, — 

Somebody's darling- is dying now. 
Back from the beautiful blue veined brow, 

Brush all the wandering waves of gold ; 
Cross his hands on his bosom now. 

Somebody's darling is still and cold." 

At Salisbury the following members of my company 
■whose homes were in Greene County, all passed away as if 
they were sleeping : Clark Burk. William ^Vatson, Wriliam 
Funk, Marian Morris, David Keys. They were loyal to their 
country, and died that the nation might live, and may the 
principles of true fidelity l)e a living monument to their mem- 
ory. A great many more died who were from Greene and 
Washington counties that have passed from my memory as 



Death Rate at Salisbury. 2ii 

to name. The death rate in Sahshnry dnring December and 
Jannary was from fifty to seventy-five each day. I would 
often go to the dead house, usually in the morning-, until I 
became so weak and almost broken-hearted. During the 
twenty days of February that we remained in this prison I 
seldom visited the place of the dead. My object in going 
when I was able to go was to see if any of m}' friends had died 
during the night, as Bissett and I were separated and at 
some distance from our friends. The dead were placed in 
two rows, usually their feet toward the middle of the room. 
with a small aisle between the two rows. I would pass up the 
row and look at the upturned faces of these ghastly creatures. 
and down the other side, and very often did not recognize my 
nearest and dearest friend. My own mother would not have 
known her own son from a South Sea islander if she had 
met me at the gate of the prison. Scurvy, the most destruc- 
tive disease that afflicted us. had become fearfully prevalent, 
and more than one-half of the prisoners were more or less 
afflicted with it. More than one-half the number that died 
perished of this terrible disease. This disease is the result of 
impure air, bad water, and improper food, and as we had the 
two first named articles in abundance, and what we did have 
of the third was of the improper kind, the result was. of 
course, scurvy. I shall not enter into a full or de- 
tailed description of the symptoms or approach of this 
dreaded disease. My left liip and my lower limbs 
became full of holes, until any one could see the bones 
in my hip, and in my feet, ulcerated sores left large 
scars upon my limbs which medical boards in their 
examinations have persisted were gunshot wounds. During 
almost all my suffering and terrible affliction not a murmur 
escaped my lips against the government and the dear old flag 
that I loved so well. But like Job of old. I was firm in the 
full assurance that my Redeemer lived ; although they (the 
rebels) might afflict, deface and almost dethrone reason, yet 
would I remain loyal. Many a poor soul found relief from 
their tormentors by the swift bullet from the guards. My 



212 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldom. 

own life was in jeapordy five times by these prison guards. 
Once in a box car from Petersburg to Richmond, while in 
transit, I got into an argument on the state of the Union with 
one of the guards. 1 told him it was a mistake about one 
southern whipper-snapper of a Johnnie reb whipping five 
Yankees. He flew into a southern rage, and would have 
bayoneted me had not my comrades formed a circle about me. 
Twice by the bullet while in Richmond and once by the butt 
of a musket. A rebel guard at Salisbury, as I was lying down 
one night in the tent, having only a brick for a pillow, fired 
into the stockade, the bullet entering just under my head. 

Captain Wirz and Lieutenant Davis paid the penalty of 
their crimes on the scafiiold, but John H. Gee, of Salisbury, 
went scot free. On what principles of justice the government 
hung the old Dutch captain and his lieutenant, and let this 
man go unpunished is past finding out. 

More than one civilian has listened to the pitiful tale of 
a returned prisoner, and afterwards remarked : "Well, no 
doubt it was a rather tough place, but that fellow was prob- 
ably stretching it a little." And this in all sincerity, for we 
doubt if any man who never saw Salisbury, Belle Isle or 
Andersonville, ever had a full realization of its horrors. 

On February 2Tst a rebel officer entered the stockade 
and ordered all the sick in the hospitals to be put in readiness 
and be taken to the cars. All prisoners who were not able to 
march would get ready to be shipped with the sick from the 
hospitals by way of Richmond. At noon all of the sick were 
taken out of the stockade and tenderly placed in box cars. 
After the sick came all the men who were just able to walk to 
the train were called out and placed in charge of the sick, 
and soon the long train of cars left the prison. Many of us 
that were left behind in this miserable place looked upon our 
most fortunate comrades with jealousy. We had often been 
deceived by just such promises of release, by having been 
taken from prison to prison. But by this time we had be- 
come more jubiliant, as we received encouragement from the 
new arrivals from (irant's and Sherman's armies. We were 



First Exchange of Prisoners. 213 

now confident, from the information we had received, that 
the Confederacy was about petered out. 

What joy in that faraway camp or valley of death, as our 
poor sick comrades were carried and led along to the cars. 
How the tears trickled down our sallow smoked cheeks as we 
clasped each other by the hand and gave thanks to the Father 
of all mercies. 

A small army was yet left within the gates, and as we 
gazed out through the open gates at our companions or skel- 
etons in rags, we could hear some comrade say the last fare- 
well, and another one would say, "Good-bye, John, until we 
meet again. Tell my mother I am still living, and hope to 
be at home soon." At last the gates of Salisbury prison 
were closed upon the prisoners who had wished to remain 
and march out on the morrow. In all my change from 
prison to prison I never had been separated from my army 
messmate. Sergeant Bissett. We were at this time separated, 
as he chose to go with the sick by way of Richmond. I had 
always said I would walk out of Salisbury and if there was a 
living man in this prison in the spring I would be one of them, 
and I kept my word. On the evening of the 21st of February 
we were given three days' rations, consisting of one loaf of 
bread and one pound of pork. After the shadows had spread 
her darkness over the land and prison, we scarcely closed our 
eyes all that long night. I had eaten my last rations ere 
morning came. W> had spent the night talking of home, 
our comrades who had left us and those we were compelled to 
leave behind. I was now in the old shelter tent we were plac- 
ed in in November, 1864. We then numbered fifty men. Dur- 
ing this night of sleeplessness, Sergeant Mart Hazen, of this 
squad, called the roll ; of the original fifty, only ten answer- 
ed. Only one of our fifty joined the rebels and one went out 
with the sick and thirty-eight had died. They quietly sleep. 

At daylight on Washington's birthday a rebel officer 
walked into the prison, while the drum beat for the assembly 
of the prisoners for perhaps the last time. We were ordered 
to fall in in two ranks and take the parole, not to straggle or 



214 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldoni. 

ivy to make our escape until we were regularly paroled, 
which would be at Goldsboro. The gates of the prison were 
opened and all the Yankees that had remained from the day 
before marched out into the free open air. I l)ecame im- 
patient and felt as though I could iiy, if they would only let 
me out. When I stepped out of this prison into the open 
country, I was sadly disappointed, I found I was very weak. 
It was imposible for me to walk without the aid of two canes 
and I was very frail and tottering. Imagine, reader, a man 
just from a long spell of typhoid fever, you then can form an 
idea of my frailty. 

At last night came of the first day's march from Salis- 
bury toward Greensboro, N. C, and a hard tramp it was to 
me. I was scarcely two miles from the prison I had left 
with such a light heart in the morning. I was without food, 
blanket or shelter. I dropped upon the cold, damp ground 
beside my more fortunate comrades of the old Libby tent 
of the past winter. Morning came and the second day out 
from Salisbury, and this day I had nothing to eat but a few 
wild onions that grew sparsely in the old field on either side 
of the railroad. When we left the prison we were ordered 
to follow the railroad and I tramped on toward Greensboro, 
which was about fifty miles distant. The second night I 
came up with three of my regiment and tentmates at Salis- 
bury and Belle Isle. They had been foraging on either side 
of the road during the day. These comrades had not made 
much progress in making a zig-zag march after raw material. 
They had found, or begged, some food, and they gave me 
of such as they had. My Good Samaritans got permis- 
sion from an old tar-heel for several of us prisoners to sleep 
in his stable loft on the bare floor. In this stable loft I 
almost lost my life, or what little there was left in me. 
When I climbed up in the stable it was dark. My friend 
James Eberhart procured me as comfortable a place as he 
could. During the night one of our prison thugs wished 
my place ; he fell upon me and almost beat out the little 
spark of life that remained in me. I am indebted to com- 
rade Eberhart for saving mv life at this time. 



On the Way to ''''God's Country.'''' 215 

At sunrise the prisoners all left the barn and left me in 
my sad condition and reflection. On looking over the Car- 
olina barn, I espied a large pile of corn in the ear, I would 
say two hundred bushels. I procured several ears of this 
corn and parched it at a camp about one mile from the barn. 
I came up with the camp fires of the rel^el guards and some 
of our own men's camp. They had stayed here during the 
night and had left good fires, and I parched all the corn I 
had confiscated. My skillet was the one-half of a tin can- 
teen and in trying to parch the corn I burnt it, and I dis- 
covered it afforded me temporary relief in checking the 
chronic diarrhoea. 

The greatest trouble with my decrepit condition was, 
first, the scurvy sores ; second, the chronic diarrhoea. 
Both were fast telling on me. I filled my pockets with the 
parched corn, which was all I had to eat until I arrived at 
Greensboro, about the 9th of March, 1865. I was permitted 
to ride on the cars for about twelve miles. We were driven 
out of Greensboro into the wood about a mile from the 
town, and told to remain there until called, which would be 
by the army bugle. The first night in the woods the rebels 
gave us soured flour. We mixed it with water and baked 
it on a stone by setting it before the fire like our mothers 
did with the old time tin reflector. I was permitted to lie 
down on the ground in this woods. It rained all night and 
in the morning half my body was under water. 

At dark of this day, which was the nth of March, the 
bugle sounded and as many of the prisoners as could filled a 
long train of cars which came into the depot and the train 
was made ready to start. The doors of the cars were closed. 
The rain was coming down in torrents, and when I appeared 
on the platform at the depot no one could be' seen without 
but I could hear the voices of my comrades inside the cars. 
I approached the train and tapped on the door of one of the 
cars. No one answered. A rebel lieutenant, with his sabre 
dangling on the platform, came tripping along looking after 
his guards and trainmen. He approached me in the dark- 



2i6 Incidents and Adz'entiires in Rebeldom. 

ness. Calling to me he said, "What are you here for and 
what are you doing here at this time ?" I informed him I 
was so weak I could not get here any sooner, that I started 
with my comrades and my wish was to go with my messmates 
but I could not reach the train sooner. My plaintitT appeal 
softened his heart. He told me to follow him. He stopped 
in front of a car door, and pounding with his sabre on the 
door, called to those within to open. The men at first re- 
fused to open the door, but afterwards repented and opened 
it; the lieutenant helped me into the car and when inside I dis- 
covered that all my tentmates with whom I had spent a long 
prison life were in this car. It was remarkably strange, and 
yet it is true, that in all my long tramp from SaUsbury to 
Greensboro, Goldsburg, and to the sea, I slept every night 
with these three comrades of my regiment who had been 
with me in all the prisons, Hazen, Vaughn and Eberhart. 
During the afterpart of the night we arrived at Goldsboro. 
We were unloaded at the depot and the guards drove us out 
into the open country at the point of the bayonet. In get- 
ting to this camp in the woods, I thought my time had sure- 
ly come. I would sometimes drop into a North Carolina 
sink-hole up to my hips, and at another time first one leg 
and then the other. In the darkness I would catch my sore 
and bleeding feet in large, thorny green brier. At last I fell 
against a stump, it striking me in the pit of the stomach. 1 
became unconscious and remained in this conditioin for 
some time. When consciousness returned I thought, will 
I get up and try to reach home or will I die ? I then re- 
solved I would live. I got upon my feet again and steadied 
myself by a fallen tree. After standing here a few minutes 
I discovered four men preparing to lay down for the night, 
only a few feet from me. One of them spoke my name. I 
then approached them, and speaking to Sergeant Hazen, he 
turned around and looked at me, and placing me between 
him and the light, he exclamed at the same time, "Good, he 
still lives." When all was in readiness for the night, the 
sergeant called me up and placed me in the middle. 



Arrival at AnnopoHs. 217 

Although it was a down-pour I was informed that I slept 
soundly, and I dreamed of eating good things at home, 
among kind friends. 

When morning came the rebel officers called us up into 
a camp and we signed the regular parole. This was the 
1 2th day of March. The rebel officers thought strange that 
so many of the Yankee prisoners could write their names. 
In the evening of this day we were called up and marched 
into the city of Goldsboro and ordered to lie down in the 
dusty streets until the railroad men could get up a train large 
enough to haul all the Yankee prisoners out of this place 
into our lines near Wilmington. At midnight the train 
started with all of us on board for our lines. At ten o'clock 
a. m., the 13th day of March, we were run into General 
Terry's lines, near Wilmington, N. C. After remaining in 
this city for one day we boarded a fine ocean steamer for An- 
napolis, Md. We arrived at the city of Annapolis, college 
yard, on the i6th, which was Sunday evening. When we 
stepped upon the gangplank at the wharf, hundreds of men 
and women, old and young, from all parts of the United 
States, were there looking for some dear husband, father or 
son, and with tears in their eyes would ask us if we knew 
John Jones, of Company C, or William Smith of Company 
E, etc. \\'e could only shake our heads. Many of them 
wept and were almost broken-hearted. We could hear the 
wail of some tender-hearted mother or father say, "Can it be 
possil)le that men of this so-called Confederacy would be so 
brutal ?" 

We were washed in the bath house at the capital city of 
"My Maryland,'' and clean clothes put on us, and giving us 
two months extra pay and fifty dollars commutation money 
gave us a thirty-day furlough. 

All I have written in regard to my life in the Southern 
prison pens and my journey home is the truth. On the i8th 
of March I left Annapolis and arrived at my sister's home in 
Blacksville, W. Va. After months of suffering with typhoid 



2l8 



Incidents and Adventures in Rebelilom. 



pneumonia, between life and death, I have been permitted 
to drag along these years with a broken constitution. I 
hope to give you facts of how our Christianized government 
treated prisoners of war, that you may draw the line. 




CHAPTER XIX. 

Treatment of Rebel Prisoners at the North. 

I see ill the National Tribune of May 7th, 1896, an ac- 
count of the famous outbreak at that place of suffering, 
(SaHsbury), the only open insurrection of prisoners during 
the war, by comrade Henry Mann, Fifty-Ninth New York 
Regiment, almost identical with my account of the outbreak 
and suffering. There is no blacker page in the world's his- 
tory than that on which is recorded the atrocious cruelties 
practiced upon the Union prisoners of w^ar by the officials of 
the so-called military prisons. I say this in full considera- 
tion of the fact that a lapse of thirty-one years has softened 
the realities to such an extent that some tender-hearted 
apologists fear to speak of the matter, save with bated 
breath, while others affect to believe that the horrors of the 
rebel dungeons never existed except in the distorted minds 
of the unfortunate captives. There have been not a few 
persons, otherw'ise apparently sane, who have asserted that 
all this talk about suffering, starvation and cruelty is not 
only untrue, but that it is merely a string of falsehoods got- 
ten up in sympathy for the soldiers and to further political 
schemes. Strange as it may seem, there are scores of such 
apologists in the North ; but it is safe to say that every one 
of them was in the North all through the war, or else have 
been born since the struggle ; unless, indeed, he be a foreign 
exotic or a member of the noble band who found Canada a 
convenient abiding place during the early sixties. I have 
interviewed scores of ex-prisoners, and many of them have 
long since buried the hatchet and extended the olive branch 
of peace to their old enemies, and without a single excep- 
tion, the records and statements as set forth by me, have 
and will meet with a complete endorsement. If there is one 
Union ex-prisoner of war in this or anv other countv who 



220 Incidents and Adventures in Rcbeldom. 

was confined in other prisons of the Sonth, I call on him to 
rise and call me to an account. 

I willingly grant that this black stain will forever mar 
the history of that country which is conceded to he highest 
in the world's civilization, although it would be fortunate 
indeed for all concerned if it could be blotted out and en- 
tirely obliterated. But this would not be just to the mem- 
ory of the heroic thousands whose gallant deeds in the fore- 
front of battle were eclipsed only by their heroic fortitude 
in the presence of untold tortures compared to which the 
whistle of the bullet and the shriek of the shell were as the 
sweetest music. In ancient times and among barbarous na- 
tions it was the custom to subject captives of war to gross 
indignities and tortures, but the laws of all civilized nations 
prescribed for the captives taken in honorable warfare, treat- 
ment as humane and comforts as great as those enjoyed by 
the rank and file of the conquering army. To treat prison- 
ers of war, captured in battle, with neglect and cruelty far 
greater than the most inhuman master could inflict upon 
the most worthless of his brutes, is a distinction which was 
reserved for the chivalrous and high.ly civilized rulers of the 
late Southern Confederacy. It has been claimed that 
Southern leaders were not responsible for the horrible con- 
dition which existed in the Southern military prisons ; and 
it is a matter of fact that many of the worst atrocities were 
directly chargeable to the malignity of the brutal under- 
strappers who had immediate charge of the prisoners, such 
as Winder, Turner, Wirz, Gee, and others of that ilk. But, 
nevertheless, the ultimate responsibility rests and must ever 
rest upon the shoulders of those high in authority, who per- 
mitted these things to exist and continue — not one week, 
or one month, but for years, without so much as entering a 
protest or raising a hand to stop the wholesale murders. 

The utmost exercise of Christian charity will not pre- 
vent the friends and comrades of the slaughtered victims 
from cherishing the devout hope that when Gabriel sounds 
his trumpet on that great day, these monsters of cruelty will 



Treat7nent of Confsderate Prisoners. 221 

be incontinently hurled to the depths of the Bottomless 
Pit, a fate to which their deeds done in the body most justly 
entitles them. It has been claimed, as an offset to the com- 
plaints of the Union prisoners, that the Federal government 
treated its Confederate prisoners with equal severity. For- 
tunately for the good name of our common country the 
charge is false, as will be shown hereafter. And it is also 
claimed that the rebels were unable, from scarcity of provis- 
ions and fuel, to provide for the comforts of the captives, and 
that therefore they were morally blameless. This also has 
been proven to be false, or generally so, although all Christ- 
endom would be glad to know that it were true. Any un- 
conscious or unintentional form of crime is less reprehensible 
than that which is knowingly or deliberately committed, but 
the established facts point to a deliberate design on the part 
not only of the prison-keepers and the superiors, but of the 
Southern people as a whole. The idea seems almost too 
revolting to be entertained, but no other theory will cover 
the immensity and variety of that system of abuse to which 
we soldiers were subjected. 

It was a well known fact that certain rooms in I.ibby 
prison were packed with stores of eatables, while the prison- 
ers were actually starving within the walls. The store- 
houses in and about Salisbury were overflowing with grain 
and provisions, while the Union captives, within a stone's 
throw, were hungrily gnawing at old bones plucked from 
the miry filth ; in many places the captives were freezing 
by*inches wilhin full view of swamps and hillsides burdened 
with timber. Again, one prison pen was like another, one 
hospital like another hospital. Salisbury was Belle Isle over 
again, five times enlarged and two times intensified. A re- 
mote prison at Tyler, Tex., sent out a report on a par with 
Libby and Salisbury. 

No supposition of negligence, or accident, or destitu- 
tion, or necessity, or ineflicieny can account for all this. The 
similarity of conditions at all the Southern military prisons 
forbid the idea of accident or unfavorable location. So manv 



222 Incidents and Adventurer in Rebeldom. 

and surely positive forms of abuse could never have come 
from merely negative causes. 

Figures are stubborn things, and the official reports of 
the United States government show figures that must for- 
ever extinguish the idea that rebel prisoners confined in the 
United States military prisons were treated with undue se- 
verity, or with disregard of the established laws of civilized 
warfare. Take Fort Delaware for example. The official 
records show that the daily rations received by each military 
prisoner at Fort Delaware, up to June ist, 1864, were three 
pounds of solid food, besides coffee, sugar, molasses and 
other luxuries. After June ist, 1864, this was reduced to 
about thirty-four and a half ounces per day, which reduction 
was made according to the report of Quartermaster General 
Meigs (July 6th, 1864), "for the purpose of bringing it. (the 
ration), nearer to what the rebel authorities profess to allow 
Iheir soldiers," and no complaint has been heard of its in- 
sufficiency. This ration was issued all through the war and 
was generally composed of bread, (made of four parts flour 
and one part Indian meal), fresh meat or bacon, and vege- 
tables according to season. The ration was practically the 
same at all the United States military prisons, including that 
at Johnson's Island, Lake Erie, of which so much complaint 
was made. At the same time the Union prisoners at Libby, 
Salisbury, etc., were receiving a maximum ration averaging 
eight ounces of solid food, and this frequently dropped off to 
a minimum ration of only five ounces, of which four ounces 
were musty corn bread, and one ounce was "salt-horse." 
Take the matter of clothing and personal care. At Fort 
Delaware the prisoners, some eight or nine thousand, were 
kept in well built and ventilated barracks, and had free ac- 
cess to adjoining enclosures for air and exercise. There 
was abundance of water, so that if any man choose, he could 
l)athe every day. Each man had a commodious bunk to 
himself, the head properly elevated above the foot in strik- 
ing contrast to the Confederate prisons, where the inmates 
slept on bare flat floors or on the cold and frozen earth, with- 



Treaime?it of Conjederate Pn'sojiers. 223 

out so much as a wisp of straw between them and the 
ground. 

Thirty thousand gallons of drinking water were 
brought daily from the sparkling Brandy wine Creek across 
the channel. This was done to prevent the prisoners from 
drinking from shallow dug wells producing brackish water. 
Each prisoner was inspected when received. If dirty he was 
washed, his clothes burned and new ones supplied ; if sick 
he was sent to the spacious and airy hospital, placed in a 
clean bed and given every attention. Each man was furn- 
ished with blanket, overcoat, etc., if needed. Some idea of 
the amount of clothing furnished by the United States gov- 
ernment may be gained from the official statement of the 
quartermaster, which. shows that from September ist. 1863, 
to May 1st, 1864, thirty-five thousand eight hundred and 
eighty-four articles of clothing were issued to the prisoners, 
(about eight thousand), at Fort Delaware. The chief items 
were : seven thousand one hundred and seventy-four pairs 
of drawers, six thousand two hundred and sixty flannel 
shirts, eight thousand eight hundred and seven pairs of 
woolen socks, four thousand three hundred and seventy- 
eight woolen blankets and two thousand six hundred and 
eighty woolen overcoats ; the remainder being largely 
made up of boots, coats, jackets and trousers. Every pris- 
oner who had not a blanket or overcoat of his own was pro- 
vided with one, and all that were in want of clothing receiv- 
ed it. Some thirteen hundred tons of coal were used each 
winter to keep the barracks warm and comfortable. x\s a 
natural result, the average condition of health among the 
prisoners was good, and the death rate very low except during 
July, August, October and November, 1863, when smallpox 
carried off several hundred victims. A majority of the pris- 
oners had never been vaccinated, for vaccination appears to 
have been almost unknown among the poor classes of the 
South, and the attempts of the prisoners to vaccinate each 
other only led to a variety of more serious disorders, from 
the bad quality of the virus employed. After this disease 



224 Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldom. 

was conquered the death rate steadily decreased, until in 
May, 1864, but sixty-two died, out of eight thousand one 
hundred and twenty-six confined on the island, or less than 
ten per cent, per year. The entire year, including the small- 
pox epidemic, showed a death rate of less than twenty-nine 
per cent., and this includes death from wounds and exposure 
occurring previous to capture. 

Compare this with the average death rate at Salisbury 
of over four hundred per cent per. year, and the death rate 
of Andersonville, which cannot be accurately computed, but 
which was greater than any one prison in the South. 

By such contrast of mortality at United States stations 
and at rebel stations, argument and comment are struck 
dumb. Referring again to the rations we find it officially 
recorded that considerable quantities of surplus food were 
found concealed beneath the bunks of the rebel prisoners at 
Fort Deleware and elsewhere. Imagine the possibility of a 
Union prisoner having any surplus to conceal. 

The DeCamp General Hospital, David's Island. N. Y., 
was on a par with that at Fort Delaware. Many of the pris- 
oners arrived in a horrible condition — ragged, barefooted, 
wounded and covered with vermin. Their clothing being 
removed and burned, they were washed, furnished with clean 
linen, and placed in clean and well-aired beds, and full suits 
of clothes issued to them. This government did everything 
but place a ring on their fingers. They were allowed during 
convalescence, the freedom of the whole island, inside of a 
line of sentries. None of them were ever shot at, none were 
ever frost-bitten. Ice-water was furnished in profusion ; 
soap, combs and towels were distributed for private use ; 
and there was one trained nurse for every ten prisoners. A 
library of two thousand volumes was at their disposal. 

• Johnson's Island, Ohio, has been a special subject of 
misstatements. This island, of about three hundred acres, 
is located at Sandusky Bay, close to Kelley's Island, which is 
a favorite place of summer resort. It is one of the most sa- 
lubrious and delightful spots in the United States. True, it 



Death Rate of Rebel Prisoners. 225 

is cold in the winter, but the barracks were new, well built 
and well warmed, and there was not an instance of suffering 
from exposure, except in the case of a few prisoners who at- 
tempted to escape. The stories of ill treatment and ex- 
posure are effectually exploded by the official figures, show- 
ing that in twenty-one months, out of an aggregate of six 
thousand four hundred and ten prisoners, there were only 
one hundred and thirty-four deaths. In the months of May 
and June, 1864, there were about two thousand three hun- 
dred prisoners. In May five died and in June only one. 

Contrast that with the death rate the same months at 
Andersonville. A similar beneficent state of affairs is re- 
vealed by an examination of the records of all the other 
United States stations and hospitals ; and the public senti- 
ment of the North, outraged though it was by the harrow- 
ing tales that came from her imprisoned heroes in the deadly 
Southern prison pens, would never have permitted any other 
than this magnanimous and Christian course of "heaping 
coals of fire" upon our enemies' heads. 

The reader cannot have failed to be struck by the con- 
trast that has been shown between the military stations for 
prisoners North and South. But the contrast was over- 
whelmingly great when the exchange of prisoners was made 
in March, 1865, when the flag-of-truce boat landed within 
the rebel lines and the two systems confronted each other. 

On one side were hundreds of feeble, emaciated men, 
ragged, hungry, filthy, diseased and dying — wrecks from the 
Southern slaughter pens. On the other side an equal num- 
ber of strong and hearty men, well clad in the army cloth- 
ing of the government they had fought to destroy, having 
been humanely sheltered, fed, cleansed of dirt, cured of 
wounds and diseases, and now honorably returned in prime 
condition to fight that government again. 

From this preamble, in which I have aimed to give a 
true idea of the treatment accorded rebel prisoners at the 
hands of the Federal government, we must turn with sad- 
ness to the portrayal of our own suffering. I can but just- 
ly say by my own experience, after thirty-one years, that in- 
dividuals, parties and the Republic have been imgrateful to 
me. C. H. GOLDEN. 



RETROSPECTIVE. 

Cavilers. falsifiers and perjurers have for many years 
since the war resorted to every dishonorable, false and des- 
picable means, (even criminal perjury as per "The Lost 
Cause" and "The Life of Jefferson Davis'), to explain, ex- 
cuse and deny the horrible and deliberate starvation of 
Union prisoners of war. The facts and figures presented 
by Comrade Golden are true and unanswerable, and from my 
own experience as a rebel soldier in the Soldiers' Retreat at 
Richmond, I positively know they had good and sufficient 
food. And the truth of this statement is amply proven by 
the fact that no rebel soldier was ever known to starve to 
death, and yet according to these liars and perjurers the 
Yankee prisoners of war were being fed the same quantity 
and quality of food as were the rank and file in the rebel 
army. And this same rebel army although fed upon the 
same kind of food upon which many thousands of Union 
prisoners starved to death, were capable of prosecuting and 
conducting active and vigorous campaigns throughout the 
entire war. Moreover, to prove that the starvation of 
Union prisoners was deliberately planned and executed, is 
the fact that of all the food and clothing sent to the prison- 
ers from the North none of it was ever issued to them and 
they were allowed to die in agony, with their starved eyes 
resting upon the very building containing this food. In the 
two hundred and thirty-two battles of the Civil War, over 
forty-nine thousand Federals were killed upon the field in 
action. In the prison-hells of the South over seventy-one 
thousand brave, patriotic martyrs suffered a lingering 
death in their country's cause. 

Sleep on, brave heroes, neither 'storied urn or animated 
bust" may ever mark the unknown, unhonored ditch which 
swallowed up your fleeting clay, l)ut, forgotten never shall be 
vour suffering and heroism by vour surviving comrades. 



Retrospective. 227 

''Cease guns, be still ; one day is set 
Which strife nor battle mars. 
For souls that in their cloudy tents 
Are camping near the stars. 

"Some forms on lofty hilltops rest, 
Some in the valleys lie ; 
The tropic grasses wave o'er some. 
O'er some the waters sigh. 

''Rank, line and file forever more 
Shall dream of glory proud. 
While floats the flag they carried far, 
And gathered for a shroud." 

About the time of our capture by the enemy General 
Grant, with the approval of Secretary Stanton and President 
Lincoln, issued an order stopping the exchange of all pris- 
oners of war. The stated reason for this order was that 
the healthy, fat and well-fed rebel soldier on being released 
was immediately capable of active service in the rebel ranks, 
while the starved, diseased and dying Union soldier received 
in exchange for him, had to be sent to the hospital either to 
die or to recover only after months of careful nursing and 
treatment. 

This heartless and cruel order consigned the thousands 
of brave defenders of the Union, who had been captured in 
the forefront of battle, to a lingering and ignominious death. 
The rebel authorities, through malignity and revenge, and 
for the purpose of weakening the Ihiion army, instantly re- 
doubled their infamous efforts at starvation, especially as the 
United States government, having seemingly abandoned 
its captive soldiers to their fate, neither protested nor retal- 
iated upon the enemy in an effort to protect its hapless de- 
fenders in the just rights accorded prisoners of war under 
the international law. In so far as making no effort by a 
just and lawful retaliation upon the enemy to enforce the 
proper treatment of prisoners of war, the United States 
authorities were particeps criminis in the most inhumane, 



2 28 Retrospective. 

terrible and barbarous act that ever disgraced the pages of 
ancient or modern history. 

As the admitted treacherous acts of General McClel- 
land, as discussed by the rebels in my presence in the Sol- 
diers' Retreat at Richmond, while I was a supposed com- 
rade, are amply borne out by the facts of truthful, unpreju- 
diced history. I firmly believe them to be true and reliable. 
Therefore, "I have written the things I see, the things that 
have been and always shall be true, conscious of right, nor 
fearing wrong." 




• 81 



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